{"id":65384,"date":"2025-10-15T15:59:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/10\/15\/bmo-ceo-worries-canadas-focus-on-building-economy-reducing-trade-barriers-may-lose-steam\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T15:59:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T15:59:55","slug":"bmo-ceo-worries-canadas-focus-on-building-economy-reducing-trade-barriers-may-lose-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2025\/10\/15\/bmo-ceo-worries-canadas-focus-on-building-economy-reducing-trade-barriers-may-lose-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"BMO CEO worries Canada&#039;s focus on building economy, reducing trade barriers may lose steam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tariffs, trade tensions and steel\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IWF0HXokAZ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Canada needs a \u201clittle less conversation and a little more action\u201d as it looks to remove <\/p>\n<p>                        interprovincial trade barriers<\/p>\n<p>                         and build new projects to negate the impact of <\/p>\n<p>                        United States tariffs<\/p>\n<p>                         on its economy, says <\/p>\n<p>                        Bank of Montreal<\/p>\n<p>                        \u2018s chief executive. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cI am worried that the air goes out of this balloon,\u201d <\/p>\n<p>                        Darryl White<\/p>\n<p>                         said at the Toronto Global Forum on Wednesday. \u201cAre we competitive on tone? Are we competitive on tax? I know the answer to that is absolutely not, and that\u2019s not being talked about enough.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> There has been a lot of conversation in recent months about how the tariffs should act as a wake-up call for Canada and compel it to take advantage of its strengths, such as its natural resources sector and be more competitive, but he said that impetus could be in danger of fading away. <\/p>\n<p> White said Canada\u2019s tax rates need to be more competitive for its economy to grow and to attract international investors. There are investors who are keener on Canada due to all the recent talks, but \u201cwe are fooling ourselves if we think those people are going to get on the field,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cI can be all elbows up and patriotic and all the rest of it, but, at the end of the day, capital is not that sophisticated. It\u2019ll flow to the point of least resistance.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> White said removing Canada\u2019s internal trade barriers could \u201coverwhelm almost any negative impact\u201d that Canada could face from the renewal of its trade deal with the U.S., which is almost certain to include some form of tariffs. <\/p>\n<p> The majority of Canada\u2019s goods that are exported to the U.S. are shielded from tariffs due to the Canada-United States-Mexico (<\/p>\n<p>                        CUSMA<\/p>\n<p>                        ) trade agreement, which is expected to be revisited next year with negotiations between the three countries ongoing. <\/p>\n<p> White said Canada is on the right track when it comes to negotiations with the U.S., but said it\u2019s important to take \u201caction in our own house\u201d and do it quickly. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cIt\u2019s very high stakes, but I think we can do it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p> White also said that although the Donald Trump administration is steadfast on its \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy, it\u2019s not \u201cAmerica Alone,\u201d and that it wouldn\u2019t be too bad for Canada to be second. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cCanadians don\u2019t like to hear it, but if Canada were second in an America-first world \u2026 this notion of advantage in North America starts to become real,\u201d he said. \u201cDespite the headlines, despite the drama, there is a lot of well-intended and probably well-executed work going on to take advantage of those inherent advantages, where we can help each other as two countries.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> BMO beat analysts\u2019 expectations during its latest quarter, as did the rest of Canada\u2019s largest banks. <\/p>\n<p> U.S. banks\u2019 latest quarterly earnings are also topping expectations so far, but White said they are posting big results because they are doing well in the \u201cWall Street businesses,\u201d such as capital markets, investment banking and wealth management. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cMove from Wall Street to Main Street and it\u2019s not so pretty,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s very slow loan growth, which is a signal that demand is slowing down; they\u2019re starting to see some cracks in the credit quality. You heard a couple of the U.S. banks talk about the credit quality of their credit card book.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> White said the earnings headlines are being driven by averages, so people need to be careful when looking at the results. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cIt\u2019s like having your feet in the freezer and your head in the oven; on average, you feel fine, but it\u2019s pretty goddamn uncomfortable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more and more and more uncomfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> White also said he expects Canada\u2019s unemployment rate, which is currently 7.1 per cent, to be closer to eight per cent before it falls back below seven. He expects the \u201cadjustment period\u201d to take some time. <\/p>\n<p> He also expects the Bank of Canada to continue cutting interest rates, but considers this factor a \u201cminor piece of the puzzle\u201d when it comes to the overall economy. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cIt will inspire a little bit more activity in spending, but somebody who has kind of been on the edge of the cliff and is at the point where they are sort of falling over and hanging on by their fingernails, if you give them a 25 basis point on their mortgage, it\u2019s not going to be the difference maker,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Aritzia&#8217;s shift to handle all American orders from Ohio sets it up to navigate the U.S. removing its de minimis rule<\/li>\n<li>Linamar says acquisition of U.S. auto parts company not a response to Trump&#8217;s tariffs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: nkarim@postmedia.com <\/em> <\/p>\n\n<br \/>BMO CEO worries Canada&#039;s focus on building economy, reducing trade barriers may lose steam<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2025-10-15 15:59:55<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canada needs a \u201clittle less conversation and a little more action\u201d as it looks to remove interprovincial trade barriers and build new projects to negate the impact of United States&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/65385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}