Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea in October.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Senior Global Affairs leadership and a parliamentary aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney are in China now for talks that could pave the way for him to visit next year.
Mr. Carney, looking for new export markets because of an increasingly protectionist United States under President Donald Trump, is trying to patch up relations with Beijing after a severe diplomatic rupture and years of Canada barring state-owned Chinese companies from investing or operating here.
Deputy foreign affairs minister David Morrison and Kody Blois, parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, are among those who have travelled to Beijing this week. They are joined by Aaron Fowler, associate assistant deputy minister for international trade and chief trade negotiator at the Department of Global Affairs.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, in a year-end interview Tuesday, said the December visit by Mr. Morrison and others is in part following up on an October invitation from President Xi Jinping for Mr. Carney to visit him in Beijing.
Carney accepts Xi’s invitation to visit China as leaders meet in South Korea
“The work that we do as diplomats in advance of those high-level meetings is substantial, and that is part of the work that MP Blois and the officials are doing,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said.
She added later: “We’re laying the foundation for a leader-level visit. The bilateral relationship is complex. It does not rest on one issue alone, and it is important for numerous points of conversation to be addressed prior to a leader-level visit.”
Mr. Carney’s travel schedule for January has not been published and it remains to be seen whether he attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that begins Jan. 19. Mr. Trump is expected to visit China in April.
Canada and China are in the midst of a significant trade war triggered by Ottawa’s decision in 2024 to follow the then-Biden administration into imposing 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Beijing in retaliation applied hefty levies on a range of products from Canadian canola seed to seafood and pork – tariffs that are hurting Canadians across the country.
Ms. Anand, who said she has spoken to or met with more than 100 foreign ministers since being appointed to her post in Mr. Carney’s post-election cabinet, could not say whether Beijing and Ottawa might resolve their trade dispute in 2026.
She said that is part of “the broader conversation with China, trade issues, for certain, are one aspect of a very complex relationship.”
China approves group tourism travel to Canada after Carney-Xi meeting
Ms. Anand said Canada can’t be too reliant on any market. She pointed out she worked with Pakistan earlier this year to resume canola exports to the South Asian country.
“Now there are orders from Pakistan, the third-largest importer of canola in the world, for Canadian canola. This is the process of diversifying supply chains, of not putting all of our eggs in one basket.”
The Canada-China dispute over the EV tariffs is linked to Ottawa’s continuing efforts to resolve protectionist U.S. tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump on Canadian goods. The risk remains that the Trump administration could react adversely if Ottawa scaled back the EV tariffs. The U.S. envoy to Canada has praised the Canadian decision to impose the levies on Chinese EVs.
The Foreign Affairs Minister described Canada’s new foreign policy under her and Mr. Carney as “pragmatism imbued with urgency,” and said the foundation for external relations right now is that Canada needs to shift trade away from the United States.
“Geopolitically and in terms of the world trading order, both of those issues are undergoing rewiring, and for Canada, that means ensuring that we double non-U.S. trade over the next 10 years. That’s the starting point.”
Mr. Carney and Mr. Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea this past October, the first formal meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Chinese President since 2017.
The meeting in South Korea capped months of work by Ms. Anand and the Carney 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.
Taiwanese official warns Carney boosting ties with China will leave Canada vulnerable to coercion
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.
Asked what China is seeking in talks, Ms. Anand cited energy and critical minerals.
“Everywhere I go, including in Beijing, there is an intense interest in Canadian energy and Canadian critical minerals,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said. “On the energy front, the conversation includes liquefied natural gas, wind, clean and conventional energy,” she said.
Asked whether a trade deal with China is possible, Ms. Anand said Canada is taking this relationship “step by step.” Her job, including October visits to Beijing and New Delhi, is to ensure “we have the foundation to engage,” she said. “You don’t start at a complex trade negotiation. You start by having the conversation − being at the table.”
The Foreign Affairs Minister said she believes there will be a trade mission to India in 2026, which she imagines will be led by International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu.
Summing up Canadian foreign policy objectives, Ms. Anand said these include standing with Ukraine in both the short and long term via multiple forms of aid, “diversifying our trading partners so that we are never again 80 per cent dependent on one economy,” in a reference to the U.S., and “unquestionably and objectively ensuring that in this multipolar world, we are collaborating with like-minded countries.”