Germany is now thinking of Canada First by strengthening their trade relationship with the ratification of CETA in December 2022. This was the follow-up to German Chancellor Olaf Shotz’s visit to Canada to demonstrate that there are real opportunities for the two countries to develop their economic collaboration. As the political and economic situation has evolved rapidly over the past year, Germany needed to respond quickly and effectively. Canada rightly came to mind.

“Germany must adapt to the new reality,” says member of the German Council of Economic Experts, Veronika Grimm. “In order to reduce dependencies and increase the resilience of value chains, energy imports as well as the sources of critical raw materials should urgently be diversified.” The responsibility for these efforts lies primarily with companies, but the government should provide targeted support for diversification. Strategic alliances, trade agreements or guarantees for German companies investing in third countries can steer such efforts in the right direction.”

Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry of Canada: “Canada is a stable and democratic country and when you are making investments of billions of dollars, this stability is essential. Canada has, among other things, a large reserve of critical minerals in high demand around the world – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite & manganese. ”

Energy transition with a focus on the energy MoU signed in 2021 and the hydrogen agreement signed in 2022, related issues of electric vehicles, clean and green technologies, digitisation are among the main themes marking a renewed relationship between Germany and Canada to address a new industrial revolution.

Program event

9:30 – 10:00 – Welcome Coffee & Networking

10:00 – 10:05 – Opening keynote 1

– Sam Ayoub – Founder-President

Canada-Europe Economic Chamber – EU – Brussels

10:05 – 10:30 – Opening keynote 2

– Andreas Weichert – Minister Counsellor (Commercial Economic)

Embassy of Canada to Germany – Berlin

10:30 – 12:00 – Germany-Canada Conference

– Nicolas Bossé – Chief Energy Transition Officer – Brainbox AI – Montreal

– Klaus Houben – Senior Regional Manager – Europe – EDC – Dusseldorf

– Birk Angermann – Head of Global Solutions Engineering – Shopify – Berlin

– More to be confirmed shortly

Moderator

Detlef Engler – Trade Commissioner and Senior Investment Counselor

Embassy of Canada to Germany – Berlin

12:00 – 13:15 – Lunch & Business Networking

General Admission

Reserve a spot