Maninder Sidhu

They are coming to meet new customers, secure commercial opportunities and build partnerships that create more good-paying jobs here at home.

I highlighted the implications of trade uncertainties on both sides of the border, especially the auto sector, with workers on both sides feeling the impacts.

Every meeting at the G20 is a chance to open more doors for Canadian workers and businesses, and we are moving at speed to seize it.

I am focused on delivering a clear message to our G20 partners: Canada is committed to a strong, rules-based global trading system and is a reliable partner in an uncertain world.

I want to use the meeting to pitch Canada as an 'open, predictable and rules-based' trading partner.

They (Canadian businesses) would get to the finish line, another state leader would swoop in, a trade minister would swoop in and make a call and billions of dollars of deals would be lost (to competitors).

If you have one customer buying your product, they will set the price. But if we’re able to open up the market and have more customers, that gives our industry a competitive advantage.

We are launching Canada’s first-ever strategic exports office, working side by side to help our best companies win the biggest contracts in the toughest markets around the world.

The due diligence is happening right now and so to protect those commercial sensitivities I think it’s important that we allow the proponents to work through those conversations,

It’s been a busy couple of days. We’ve been at it negotiating and we literally just walked out of the room with the final touches,

Our partnership with (Turkey), as a NATO ally and strategic partner in the crossroads of Europe and Asia, has even greater potential and I am ready to advance it.

We’re taking concrete steps to deepen a relationship that benefits both economies.

This will unlock real opportunities for Canadian industry in sectors like clean energy, aerospace and mining.