By Paul Vieira
OTTAWA–Canada and China have agreed to restore regular communications between the two countries following years of testy relations following Ottawa’s role in the arrest of a senior Huawei Technologies executive in 2018.
The call between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese Premier Li Qiang marks a reset in ties between the two countries, but also emerges as both Ottawa and Beijing face economic repercussions from abrupt changes in U.S. trade policy under President Donald Trump. Both China and Canada are in talks with Washington to ease, or have removed, hefty tariffs on their U.S.-bound exports.
At a press conference in Ottawa, Carney said the call with China’s premier marks the start of “recalibrating the relationship with China. It’s important that we reopen dialogue with Chinese authorities.”
Carney also moved to reset relations with another Asian powerhouse. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on his official X account that he accepted Carney’s invitation to attend this month’s Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. “India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests.”
According to a readout of the Carney-Li call issued by Canada’s Prime Minister’s Office, Carney pressed Li about dropping a series of tariffs on Canadian agrifood and seafood products. Beijing imposed those levies in March in response to Canada’s 100% tariffs on China-made electric vehicles–matching a similar levy implemented by the former Biden administration.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Li told Carney that China is ready to work with officials in Ottawa to “safeguard multilateralism and free trade” amid disruptions fueled by Trump’s trade policy. Li added that he hopes Beijing and Ottawa can collaborate in sectors such as clean energy, climate change and technological innovation.
Carney faced some pressure this week in a meeting with Canada’s provincial premiers to either drop or ease the tariffs on Chinese vehicles to avoid 100% tariffs on China-bound canola oil and canola meal, and a 25% duty on certain pork, fish and seafood products.
“That is precisely what this will take to not only secure our market access for products like canola oil and canola meal in the long term, but to secure a more broad trading relationship with China,” said Scott Moe, the Saskatchewan Premier.
Under Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, relations between Beijing and Ottawa turned testy since 2018 after Canada–at Washington’s behest–arrested Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou, an event followed by the imprisonment of two Canadians in China for nearly four years.
Tension spilled out into the open in late 2022 during a Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Indonesia. Chinese leader Xi Jinping publicly chided Trudeau for revealing to Canadian media the details of a discussion between the two leaders, at which time Canada’s former prime minister leveled accusations about Chinese interference in the country’s domestic affairs.
Canadian officials are in what Carney describes as “intensive discussions” with the U.S. on a new economic-and-security pact, with the aim of lifting hefty U.S. tariffs on goods such as motor vehicles, steel, aluminum and goods not compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact. Carney also championed deeper economic ties with Europe and Asia, arguing Ottawa can no longer rely on tariff-free access to the world’s largest market.
“We are currently witnessing a moment in time in which China is more willing to engage with Canada than Canada is with it,” L. Philippe Rheault, head of the University of Alberta’s China Institute, said in a piece published in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper. Rheault said that, despite possible economic repercussions from Washington, Canada should explore gradual re-engagement with China.
Meanwhile, ties between Canada and India became strained after Trudeau said in parliament in 2023 that Canadian authorities were pursuing “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government were involved in the killing of a Sikh activist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadian police filed first-degree murder charges last year against three individuals related to the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In a readout of the Carney-Modi call from Canadian officials, the two leaders agreed to “continued law enforcement dialogue and discussions addressing security concerns,” in a likely reference to the Nijjar case.
At the press conference, Carney defended the invite to India, saying it makes sense for the world’s fifth-largest economy to be at the G-7 leaders to discuss issues related to energy security, critical minerals and infrastructure projects.
Write to Paul Vieira at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-06-25 1424ET
