Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the start of their meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Mark Carney has accepted an invitation from Xi Jinping to visit China after they sat down for the first formal meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Chinese President since 2017.
The meeting, which lasted nearly 40 minutes, yielded no concrete results, such as concessions, in a punishing trade war between Canada and China that is hurting Canadian farmers and fishermen.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea, as Mr. Carney seeks new markets for exports to offset the economic damage that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are doing to Canada.
The encounter was far shorter than a Thursday meeting at the summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi, which lasted about 90 minutes.
In brief remarks to reporters, Mr. Carney said he thinks Canada and China have hit a “turning point” in relations that he predicted would pay dividends for Canadian families, businesses and workers. He said mended ties with Beijing create a “path to address current issues,” which include the trade war.
Carney said the meeting with Xi was long overdue and that it marks a 'turning point' in the Canada-China relationship that will create opportunities for Canadian families, businesses and workers.
The Canadian Press
By comparison, the Trump-Xi meeting yielded a mutual agreement to lower tariffs. China vowed to resume purchasing U.S. soybeans, and Mr. Trump indicated he might cut tariffs on China that he imposed because of its role in the illegal production of the deadly opioid fentanyl.
Canada imposed a 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles last year in tandem with the former Biden administration, as well as a 25-per-cent levy on steel and aluminum from China. China retaliated with tariffs on Canadian canola oil, canola meal, peas and Canadian seafood and pork products. It ratcheted up the pressure in August by imposing a duty of more than 75 per cent on Canadian canola seed, a major crop in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
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The meeting in South Korea caps months of work by Mr. Carney and his new government to repair relations with major emerging markets such as China, which buys about 5 per cent of Canadian exports, as well as India, which purchases less than 1 per cent.
Canada-China relations entered a deep freeze after the Canadian government arrested a Chinese tech executive on a U.S. extradition request and Beijing retaliated by jailing two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
An official readout published by the Canadian government after the meeting said both Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi directed their officials to “move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants.” It said the two leaders “discussed solutions to respective sensitivities regarding issues including agriculture and agri-food products, such as canola, as well as seafood and electric vehicles.”
Carney said the world of rules-based liberalized trade and investment had passed as the global economy was going through one of the most profound changes since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Reuters
Mr. Carney, speaking in front of the cameras when he first sat down with Mr. Xi Friday, lamented the eroded relationship and signalled he wants to remedy this.
He noted that 55 years had passed since Canada established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China under the ruling Communist Party.
“In recent years, we have not been as engaged,” Mr. Carney told Mr. Xi. “Distance is not the way to solve problems – not the way to serve our people with people-centric growth, as you have advocated.”
He said he plans to visit China at the invitation of Mr. Xi. No details were available on when this might take place.
“I also welcome the invitation to come to China to further the dialogue, and I very much look forward to doing so,” the Prime Minister said.
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Mr. Xi said he was delighted to meet with Mr. Carney again, a reference to the fact the former central banker travelled to China in 2024 before entering politics. At the time, Mr. Carney was the board chair of Bloomberg and visited as part of a North American business delegation. The event was seen as a strategic effort by Beijing to restore confidence in China’s economy.
The Chinese President said Canada-China ties “have achieved a recovery and positive development” thanks to the efforts of both sides.
He said the “Canadian side” had “expressed its willingness to promote bilateral relations in a pragmatic and constructive manner,” adding, “I attach great importance to this.”
In its readout, the Chinese government said that from its perspective, the Canadian government wants to “make up for lost time” and generate results “in a pragmatic and constructive manner.”
Mr. Carney’s courting of Mr. Xi is an abrupt change of course in Ottawa’s approach to China, a country Ottawa publicly characterized less than three years ago as an “increasingly disruptive” global power.
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Mr. Trump’s protectionism is driving U.S. allies to look far and wide for new markets, including those that countries such as Canada have often criticized for human-rights abuses.
The Chinese government has made no secret of the fact it would remove its retaliatory tariffs if Ottawa drops the levies on EVs.
Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University, said Canada’s ability to cut a deal with China that would scale back EV tariffs is caught up in trade negotiations with Washington.
Before Ottawa agrees to drop the tariff on Chinese EVs – and potentially open the floodgates to such vehicles – it must determine whether vehicle assembly plants owned by U.S. automakers will remain in Canada or heed Mr. Trump’s call to relocate to the U.S.
“We’re kind of trapped between the dragon and the eagle, and until we figure out our own trajectory, it would be very unwise to cut a deal with the Chinese,” Prof. Hampson said.
The Associated Press
Goldy Hyder, the president of the Business Council of Canada, said the fact Mr. Trump is cutting trade deals with Beijing is good for Mr. Carney. It means the U.S. President can’t fault Canada for striking its own agreement with China, an economic power he has repeatedly alleged has “ripped off our country” for years. “The fact the Americans opened that door will ease any of the pressure that Canada may have felt from the United States.”
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, urged caution on China.
“There is no evidence that the Chinese Communist Party’s behaviour has changed on core issues such as foreign interference, coercive diplomacy or actions in the South China Sea or the Arctic,” she said.
“Engaging Beijing is necessary – including at the leader level – but it must be clear-eyed, co-ordinated with allies and sequenced carefully so that it does not undercut Canada’s negotiating positions with the United States or other Indo-Pacific partners.”
Mr. Carney will speak to Canadian journalists Saturday before he leaves the APEC summit to offer more details on the Xi meeting.
With reports from Alexandra Li in Beijing