Bill Morneau heads to London to sing Canada's praises post Brexit

While the United Kingdom figures out the terms of its breakup with the European Union, Bill Morneau is jet-setting off to London Thursday to talk up the perks of another relationship:business in Canada.

And the federal finance minister's pitch to British businesses is clear: Canada shouldn't be anyone's second thought.

"Clearly people in the U.K. are very focused on their relationship with Europe and that's going to present them with some negotiation challenges over the next couple of years,"Morneau told Chris Hall in an interview for CBC Radio's The House.

"That also, for many businesses, will present them with the opportunity to say, 'Where am I going to invest right now where there's a level optimism, where there's some level of certainty?'

"And I think Canada is a place where they can see that," he said.

• Canada in informal trade talks with U.K. ahead of Brexit
• 'Hard Brexit' creates uncertainty for Canada on what's next for trade
• Listen to CBC's The House

"I'd like to leave London having met with investors and people in their financial markets, with people saying, 'I want to make investments in Canada. It's a place where we can find great business opportunities.'"

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No new Canadian trade relationships are specificallyon the agenda, said Morneau, and Canada will continue to trade with the U.K., benefiting from the newterms ofthe ComprehensiveEconomic and Trade Agreement that is set to be provisionally applied by July 1.

International Trade Minister Franois-Philippe Champagne has said Canada and Britain are holding informal free trade talks, even though Britain is barred from direct negotiations before it formalizes its Brexit divorce from the European Union.

Britain's government officially began the process of leaving the European Union on March 29, starting the clock on two years in which to complete the most important negotiation of a generation.

"Once they've gotten that straightened out, of course, we'll be right there to work with them," Morneau said Wednesday.

Selling steel in Indiana

The Toronto Centre Liberal MP leaves Thursday for London, extending into the weekend.His U.K. trip comes on the heels of a trip to steel town Gary, Ind., where he tried to combat protectionism in the sector.

Right out of the gate, U.S. President Donald Trump went after the industry, signing an executive orderrequiring domestic steel in new pipelines a swipe at China, which he's accused of dumping steel into the United States at artificially low prices.

So far Canada has been able to avoid Buy-American provisions on the Keystone XL pipeline expansion, a major border-crossing project.

• Keystone XL would be exempt from needing U.S.-made steel, reports say

Morneau said he hopes more joint projects will keep steel makers on both sides of the border working.

"With the kind of investments we intend on continuing to make in infrastructure, there's real opportunities for steel makers," he said.

"Our overall goal is growing the size of the pie. Making opportunity for U.S steel makers, making opportunities for Canadian steel makers."

Border tax damage

In Indiana and in New York, Morneau repeatedly made the case that a proposed border adjustment tax could hit the United States hard, including currency impacts.

• Border tax might damage American economy more than Canada's: Morneau

"And that impact can actually exacerbate the problem that you might be trying to solve," he said.

"One of the things that we're trying to explain is what are the ramifications of making trade more difficult between our two countries? That's what we're trying to explain and I found a very receptive audience in that message and in particular that message that that tax has the very real potential impact of raising costs for American consumers and raising prices retail price. Surely that's going to be negative for Americans."

The original border tax proposal came from Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and is designed to raise revenues to help pay for tax cuts and to repatriate cash and jobs sent overseas by U.S. firms.

Morneau said there aren't enough details yet to figure out what impact the tax could have on Canada, but said it would likely hurt Canadian exporters.

"What is more important is the negatives that will happen for the American purchaser and that really is the message we're trying to get across."