China’s Xi and Canada’s Carney seek new chapter
Facing new global challenges, the leaders of China and Canada have vowed to improve relations between the two countries after years of acrimony.
Xi Jinping told visiting Prime Minister Mark Carney that he is willing to continue working to improve relations, noting that the two have been discussing reestablishing and restarting cooperation since their first meeting in October on the sidelines of the regional economic conference in South Korea.
“Our meeting last year can be said to have opened a new page in transforming China-Canada relations into recovery,” China’s top leader said on Friday. he said.
Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve the system of global governance, which he described as “under great pressure.”
He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.
These new realities largely reflect US President Donald Trump’s so-called “America first” approach.
The customs duties he imposed hit the economies of both Canada and China.
Carney, who met with many leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said before his trip that his government was focused on building an economy less dependent on the United States “at a time when global trade is disrupted.”
There was no announcement regarding tariffs between China and Canada, a sticking point in the relationship.
During Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, Canada followed the US by imposing a 100 percent tax on electric vehicles coming from China and a 25 percent tax on steel and aluminum.
China responded by imposing a 100 percent tariff on Canadian canola oil and meal and a 25 percent tariff on pork and seafood.
Last August, a 75.8 percent tax was added to canola seeds.
Collectively, import tariffs effectively close the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group said.
China hopes Trump’s pressure tactics on allies like Canada will push them to pursue a foreign policy less aligned with the United States.
The US president has suggested that Canada could become America’s 51st state.
Carney leaves China on Saturday and will visit Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week.
His office said he would meet with business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment.
