Facing uncertainties in ties with US, Canada enters into strategic partnership with China

Ottawa: Facing uncertainties in relations with the US, Canada is entering into a strategic partnership with China right in President Donald Trump’s front yard.

Announcing the partnership in Beijing on Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Xi Jinping said they were “renewing the relationship between Canada and China in the face of a changing global economy and international security challenges”.

The partnership, they said in a joint statement, would include “public safety and security”, an area where they have had major issues.

“I believe the progress that we have made and the partnership sets us up well for the new world order”, Carney said.

Without naming Trump, Xi made an implied reference to his policies, saying the Canada-China partnership will “help improve the multilateral system, a system that in recent years has come under great strain”.

Carney’s office said, “This visit marked a turning point in the Canada-China relationship and builds on productive engagements undertaken this past year to advance cooperation and revitalise the trade partnership”.

The partnership also encompasses energy, economic and trade cooperation, multilateralism, and culture and people-to-people ties, with Chinese investments in Canada.

As Carney looks for greater trade diversifications, a visit to India is on the cards.

India’s High Commissioner to Canada Dinesh Patnaik told the Canada Broadcasting Corporation this week that the visit will happen after India’s budget is unveiled next month.

Carney’s China visit that began on Wednesday was the first by a Canadian prime minister in eight years, thawing the relations that turned frosty after the 2018 arrests of each other’s high-profile citizens.

That was compounded by the Canadian Intelligence agency warning that Beijing was interfering in the nation’s internal affairs, including in elections, and was a security threat.

While campaigning in last year’s election, Carney said China posed the biggest threat in “a geopolitical sense”.

But after being buffeted by Trump’s threats of tariffs, trade restrictions, and even annexation, Carney warmed to China seeking alternatives.

In a dramatic turn from his earlier stances, he has now agreed to cooperation on “public safety and security” with China.

“We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be”, Carney countered pragmatically when reporters raised his earlier statements and concerns on human rights, which Canada has often lectured the world on.

A highlight of the trade-related part of the agreement between Carney and Xi is Canada dropping the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese Electric Vehicles (EVs), which it imposed in 2024, matching Washington.

Canada will now allow the import of 49,000 EVs per year at a reduced tariff of 6.1 per cent – a move that is more symbolic to send Trump a message than a breakthrough as the number will be less than 3 per cent of new cars sold in Canada each year.

China, which had hit back with 100 per cent tariff on some Canadian agricultural imports agreed to reduce it to 15 per cent.

Trump has declared a “Donroe Doctrine” — an update of the traditional “Monroe Doctrine” — to reinforce US dominance in the Western hemisphere and keep out other powers like China.

But he shrugged off China-Canada deals, telling reporters, “That’s OK. That’s what he should be doing”.

“It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that”, he added.

China is Canada’s second-biggest trading partner, with exports at $30 billion and imports at $88.9 billion in 2024.

Carney was accompanied by Foreign Minister Anita Anand, Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald.

He will stop over in Qatar for more trade deals on his way to Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum meeting.

IANS