Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in June, 2025.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is leading a trade-diversification mission to China this week, expanding on a recent trip to that country by Prime Minister Mark Carney aimed at resetting strained bilateral ties.
Mr. Champagne will meet senior Chinese finance and banking officials during a visit from April 1 to 4 that will be announced Monday. China is expected to reciprocate with an investment delegation to Canada later this year.
Brian Tobin, vice-chair of BMO Financial Group and a former Newfoundland premier, said Ottawa’s move to build on Mr. Carney’s China initiative will be welcomed by the Canadian business community and could open the door to significant Chinese investment in Canada.
“Over the last five years, the Canada-China relationship has been characterized by a continued growth of exports to Canada and flattening of exports back to China,” he said. Over that period, China exported roughly $89-billion annually to Canada compared with only $30-billion of Canadian exports to China.
“So, the time to get back in business is now,” Mr. Tobin said. “China is an important trading partner for all countries.”
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The Champagne visit is part of Mr. Carney’s effort to improve trade relations with China, India, Europe and other countries amid continuing U.S. trade conflict.
In January, the Prime Minister travelled to China to forge a new strategic partnership with the world’s second-largest economy. As part of the deal, Mr. Carney agreed to import up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles annually in exchange for Beijing reducing punishing tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood.
Mr. Tobin said Canadians can expect the Trump administration to object to increased trade with China during negotiations to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement.
But he noted that Canadians must keep in mind that Donald Trump also wants to boost economic relations with Beijing. The U.S. President postponed a planned visit to Beijing because of the U.S-Israeli war on Iran.
“The fact of the matter, if we are not there to get the trading relationship for Canada, then we are going to be standing back and watching Donald Trump do it first,” he said. “Trump is not going to China on a social visit. He’s going to China on a business visit and he intends to unquestionably open up the lanes of two-way trade.”
Mr. Tobin, who also served as industry minister in Jean Chrétien’s Liberal cabinet, said Canada cannot achieve its objective of reducing economic reliance on the U.S. without increasing trade with China and other major economies.
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“The China initiative by Mr. Champagne fits with the declaration of Mr. Carney that Canada is going to diversity its trading relationship,” he said.
The rapprochement with China is taking place after relations hit a low in 2018, in the wake of the house arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant. China responded by arresting and jailing two Canadians on trumped-up espionage charges.
All three were released in 2021 after Ms. Meng cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors.
China has also been accused, through a public inquiry into foreign interference and by Canada’s spy agency, of meddling in Canadian elections, harassing diaspora communities and stealing this country’s technology.
Mr. Tobin said Canada has since put in place significant safeguards, including expanded national-security reviews for foreign investments. The reviews focus on 11 sensitive technology sectors. Ottawa also banned federal research funding of universities co-operating with Chinese military institutions.
As a result of the public inquiry, the government also set up a mandatory registry for people undertaking “influence activity” on behalf of foreign powers and gave Canada’s top spy agency more authority to combat threats.
The changes were largely the result of months of reporting by The Globe and Mail and other media on Chinese foreign interference and disinformation campaigns, drawing on confidential national-security sources and leaked secret documents.
Mr. Tobin said the government has put rules of the road in place to rectify the ways Canada deals with China. Many of those safeguards were put in place by Mr. Champagne.
“Finance Minister Champagne was effectively the gate closer when he was industry minster on the Canada-China relationship, not so long ago,” he said. “He understands very well all the components of the size of the opportunity and all the components of the risks with China.”
Mr. Tobin said Beijing also understands that its former practice of trying to take over Canadian resource or technological companies will no longer fly. But he said the Chinese are prepared to provide capital investments without full ownership that will benefit the Canadian economy.
“We have absolutely reset the relationship such that China realizes that their best way to come back into this economy in a reasonable way is to provide capital, not in an ownership structure,” he said. “We don’t need to sell ourselves to make ourselves available in the Chinese marketplace.”
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The war in the Mideast and the effective closing of the Strait of Hormuz could open the door to Chinese investments in oil and natural-gas facilities in Canada, Mr. Tobin said.
He acknowledged that there will be voices raised against getting into bed with China because President Xi Jinping has used trade to punish countries. He has done so with Canada, South Korea and Japan over the years.
“We have to be pragmatic and understand that we can’t put all of our eggs in one basket,” he said, pointing out that Canada has in many ways placed its economic security at risk with its dependence on the U.S. trading relationship.
“This should drive us to diversify. So, we need to do more with China and more with India and more with Europe and South America as we continue to develop our mutual relationship with the United States.”