| OSAKA TO OTTAWA — International Trade Minister MARY NG is playing matchmaker in Japan this week at the helm of Canada's first trade mission under the Indo-Pacific strategy. Ng leads a delegation of 250 people representing 160 businesses. She tells Playbook the mood is “enthusiastic.” — Quick data point: Trade growth has increased 10 percent with countries under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — but trade with Japan has climbed by 23 percent since the deal came into force in 2018. — Quick policy point: Foreign Affairs Minister Joly stated in a major policy speech Monday that she believes Canada should be as close to Japan and South Korea as it is to the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. This interview with Zi-Ann Lum has been edited for length and clarity. Give us an update from the ground in Japan. I visited Panasonic yesterday — they're manufacturing batteries for cars. When Minister [YASUTOSHI] NISHIMURA was in Ottawa just last month, we signed a memorandum of cooperation. It's fantastic. Companies here are a part of that battery value chain, technologies that are interesting for the Japanese — technology chips, that sort of thing. There's a real, wonderful opportunity there. Yesterday I visited a hydrogen storage facility, a terminal at the port of Kobe. They are looking at hydrogen as helping with Japan's energy security. I've got hydrogen producers here from Canada that are looking to Japan as an important market. There are clean tech companies here. There are creative industries here. I met with an incredible Japanese digital digital company. They're looking for partnerships, whether it's AI or whether it is with digital media companies and creatives in Canada. The digital services tax was raised during your G-7 bilat with United States Trade Representative KATHERINE TAI. Is the government ready to deal with potential retaliation from the U.S. when this tax comes into effect next year? We didn't talk about that. But what we did do was talk about — what I certainly talked about — was the fact Canada takes very seriously the importance of fairness, where big corporate players, like the tech giants, pay their fair share of tax. We both agreed that what was negotiated at the OECD was something important. British trade officials tell me that they’re flexible on the April free-trade agreement deadline if more time is needed to land on a good deal. Is the feeling mutual? We've done seven rounds. We have another round in November. My message to the negotiators is: Please keep working hard. So … flexibility on the deadline? We should work as hard as we can. The negotiators and I can certainly say from the Canadian side that we are all hands on deck and we're prepared to continue putting the energy into this because it's important to us. Canadian businesses would expect us to do that. What are your fall priorities? I am going to be at APEC in about two weeks. I am taking the Canada-Ukraine free-trade agreement through Parliament. I believe I appear at [the House] trade committee next week. There's actually a couple of trade missions I won't be on directly, but I certainly will keep an eye on. That's the Asia-Pacific trade missions and another couple of women-led trade missions to Korea and Thailand. We announced the Indo-Pacific strategy last November. Since that time, I've been in the region, I don't know, probably 18-19 times. We have planted the seeds, we're watering those seeds, and we're watching the plants come up. We've got to keep watering them — and make sure it blossoms. | 
