Sawt Falasteen - Hit by Trump, Canada and EU seek comfort in numbers

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held talks with top EU officials in the Belgian capital after US President Donald Trump imposed painful 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

"Friends have each other's back," Trudeau told reporters arriving at the meeting, confirming Trump's tariffs would be among the topics on the table.

He was greeted with smiles by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU's 27 member states -- in stark contrast to the strained relations Ottawa and Brussels currently share with the White House.

"Trust is very much needed in an unpredictable world," said von der Leyen, describing the EU and Canada as "good allies" and "trusted friends".

Trudeau hit the same notes as he spoke of the "friendship, the allyship, the partnership between Canada and the European Union" which had "deepened significantly" in "unpredictable" times.

The Canadian leader's visit comes as the European Union, faced with a rocky patch in relations with Washington, has moved to position itself as a reliable trade partner for other countries looking to do business.

"The situation is not going to get better," Ignacio Garcia, an international trade expert at Brussels think tank Bruegel, said of EU-US ties under Trump.

This leaves the EU "no other option" but to "invest in developing alternative markets", he added.

The United States accounts for around 20 percent and 77 percent of EU and Canadian exports respectively.

Trump has already signalled that additional tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals and computer chips are coming, and has publicly mused about annexing Canada and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

- Reliable charm -

Bracing for a trade war, Brussels has been working to broaden its trade horizons since the Republican won back the White House in November.

In the wake of Trump's re-election, the bloc has announced a strengthened trade deal with Mexico, the resumption of talks on a free trade deal with Malaysia, and a new agreement with the South American bloc Mercosur.

It also struck a more conciliatory note towards China, and said von der Leyen's new top team will visit India in its first trip abroad.

On Tuesday, Costa announced the "first-ever" EU-Central Asia summit for April after a call with Kazakhstan's president.

A day earlier, he discussed deepening ties with South Africa -- entangled in a spat of its own with Trump.

In a phone call with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Costa stressed Europe was a "reliable and predictable partner" -- an implied contrast to Trump's volatility that he repeated speaking to reporters alongside Trudeau on Wednesday.

As explained by a senior EU official, Brussels sees bolstering ties with other nations at the rough end of the US stick as common sense, and something to use as leverage with Washington.

"We can trade with the whole world. If you close your markets, we have other partners," the official said.

- If not us, who? -

Canada already has a free-trade agreement with the EU, credited with boosting bilateral merchandise trade by 60 percent since 2017.

"The European Union and Canada... prove that trade agreements are clearly better than trade tariffs," Costa said Wednesday.

The EU is now Canada's second-largest export destination after the United States, with bilateral trade worth 157.3 billion Canadian dollars (106 billion euros) in 2023.

"But can we do even more?" Trudeau, who is to step down in March, asked a summit of business, labour and government leaders last week.

The answer is yes, according to Philipp Lamprecht, of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) think tank.

Some aluminium producers in Quebec, who ship 90 percent of their output to the United States, are looking to shift volumes eastwards to ease the tariff pain, according to the Aluminium Association of Canada.

Another boon could come from fully implementing the Canada-EU deal (CETA), which is yet to be ratified by 10 European countries, including France, Italy and Poland, often due to farmers' opposition.

burs-ub/ec/sbk

I.Matar--SF-PST