Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a major recalibration of Ottawa’s foreign and trade policy on January 16, unveiling what he called a “new strategic partnership” with China during a high-profile visit to Beijing—the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2017. He claimed that he is aiming to create a new world order, according to Newsweek.
Carney met with Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, where the two leaders discussed expanded cooperation across trade, energy, and agri-food sectors. The visit comes as Canada seeks to reduce its economic dependence on the United States following tariffs and trade threats imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, which have strained long-standing North American trade arrangements.
At the center of the talks was a preliminary trade agreement aimed at easing bilateral trade barriers. Carney confirmed that Canada will cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, allowing up to 49,000 EVs to enter the Canadian market at the most-favored-nation tariff rate of 6.1%. In return, Beijing agreed to lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports, including canola. Carney characterized the deal as a “preliminary but landmark trade agreement to remove trade barriers and reduce tariffs.”
During the meeting, Xi signaled China’s interest in deeper cooperation, expressing a willingness to strengthen coordination “to jointly address global challenges.” Carney, who had previously described China as a major security threat during his election campaign, struck a more pragmatic tone in Beijing. “In a world that’s more dangerous and divided, we face many threats,” he said, adding that while Canada’s relationship with the United States remains deeper and broader, ties with China are now “more predictable.”
The diplomatic thaw follows years of strained relations stemming from the 2018 detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, shortly after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of U.S. authorities, noted NBC News. Kovrig and Spavor were released in 2021 after Meng’s case was resolved, ending one of the most contentious chapters in modern Canada-China relations.
Public opinion in Canada has since shifted. Recent polling shows modest improvements in favorable views toward China, coinciding with a decline in goodwill toward the United States as trade frictions have intensified.
Trade experts say Ottawa’s move reflects mounting urgency. The United States accounts for roughly 75% of Canada’s manufactured goods exports, compared with about 4% destined for China. Former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques described Canada as being in a “tough spot,” noting that diversification is essential ahead of upcoming reviews of the USMCA trade framework. Demonstrating alternative export options, he argued, could strengthen Canada’s hand in negotiations with Washington.
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Is Canada really going to let Carney lead them down that path? Not very intelligent.
CCP is strong in China day 1 very visible in Country
FYI
Back just before the 2020 election PM Trudope had thousnads of Chinese military troop in Canada. Trudope claims they were in Canada for “survival training”. G 2020 Funny that the only Canadians that knew about the Chinese troops lived in British Columbia, the western most province. Residents were seeing many unmarked military type type vehicles driven by Orientals. They were in a large area in central and northern B.C. The small towns in particular say a huge increase in business from the strangers. B.C. residents speculated that the. Chinese troops were there just in case Trump managed to pull out the election at which time the Chinese were there to provide potential crowd control security services. Canadian news never reported anything about the strange Chinese invasion. Trudope was always a CCP supporter. We now see why Trudope manipulated the election that followed his resignation. He needed to turn Canada over to another CCP puppet; Mark Carney. God help Canada.