SOLOMON GRANT, CNN • Updated 16th January 2020
(CNN) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have a lot in common. They are both known for being very provocative.
Canada may soon copy Trump’s controversial plan to remove North American steel and aluminum from the American tariff list. Just days after Trump signed an executive order that would bar the import of steel and aluminum from countries including Canada, Trudeau said the government may do something similar.
And while this is clearly a poor use of Canada’s part of the free trade agreement, Trudeau says Canada isn’t following in Trump’s footsteps when it comes to public sector ethics.
“With respect to Alberta public servants, we have a set of ethics guidelines that apply to everyone in the public service,” the Canadian Prime Minister said during an interview with Foreign Policy magazine. “There’s a standard set of guidelines in place that we have continued to apply.”
So what exactly are the Pandora Papers?
The Library of Parliament in Ottawa has offered a window into why the Pandora Papers matter. The Pandora Papers are files that are part of access to information requests for Parliamentarians and officials in the federal government, according to Librarian of Parliament Donna Rutherford.
It’s the second time in nearly a year that controversial files related to offshore financial entities, have surfaced.
In September, a Canada-based company called Cambridge International Asset Management Ltd., or CIM, was named in one of the most recent revelations of the Panama Papers. The company had received an offshore permit to take money out of Canada, and it had also done business through Panama, via Mossack Fonseca, a prominent law firm in Panama. The Canadian Business Unit of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists identified Cambridge International Asset Management Ltd. in the Panama Papers as one of the 340 Canadian companies that received offshore status since 2006.
CIM disputed the leak. “Cambridge International Asset Management Ltd. ceased operating in May 2018 and the current facility is neither affiliated with Cambridge International Asset Management Ltd. nor is CIM associated with Cambridge International Asset Management Ltd. for any purpose,” the company said in a statement to CNNMoney.
During his election campaign, Trump called the Panama Papers “a disgrace.” He promised to make offshore tax havens pay.