“We in Canada and in the United States are not going to go into a downward spiral on labor standards in order to compete with China,” he said during the event, hosted by the Wilson Center. “But we need to acknowledge that we do have labor standards that do add costs — and so that has to be built into this conversation around pricing.”
China has a dominant role as a producer and processor of minerals found in everything from electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and technology including military hardware. Such dominance has the US and allies scouring the globe for alternative sources and weighing trade and policy measures to reduce dependence on China.
Wilkinson said he wants to work with other Group of Seven nations to make pricing support initiatives a possible “centerpiece” of discussions when Canada hosts the G-7 Summit in June. This could be expanded to other nations like Australia, he said,…
