China, Canada Leaders Meet First Time Since 2017 to Reset Ties

Article content

(Bloomberg) — China’s and Canada’s leaders met on Friday for the first formal sitdown in eight years as the two nations look to reset ties strained over trade and security issues.

Article content

President Xi Jinping met with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Community meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea. Carney said he welcomed an invitation for him to visit China extended by Xi.

Article content

Article content

Xi said at the start of their meeting, “In recent times, after mutual efforts, China-Canada ties have shown a recovery and improvement trend. This aligns with both countries’ mutual interest.”

Article content

Article content

“Our countries have a long history of engagement,” Carney said, noting the recent 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties with Communist-ruled China. “In recent years we have not been as engaged,” he said, in oblique reference to the tensions between the two Pacific nations.

Article content

Article content

“Distance is not the way to solve problems, not the way to serve our people with people-centered growth,” the prime minister said. “Pragmatic and constructive engagement is.”

Article content

‘Correct Track’

Article content

Xi, for his part, said that “China is willing to work with Canada to push China-Canada ties to return to the correct track of being healthy, stable and sustainable as soon as possible.”

Article content

Canada’s relationship with China plummeted when China detained two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a US extradition warrant.

Article content

The two men were released in 2021, but ties didn’t dramatically improve — with allegations swirling in Canada that China had interfered in previous elections and Beijing continuing to block imports of Canadian beef and pet food, among other goods. 

Article content

Article content

Former leader Justin Trudeau spoke briefly to Xi in late 2023, with that exchange the first time they had spoken since Xi chastised Trudeau in public for allegedly leaking details of a prior meeting.

Article content

Tariff Tiff

Article content

China hiked tariffs on Canadian canola in August in the latest round of their ongoing trade war, but since then the pace of bilateral contact has picked up, with Carney meeting Chinese Premier Li Qiang last month in New York and Foreign Minister Anita Anand traveling to Beijing earlier this month to meet her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Article content

Earlier this week, Carney downplayed expectations for immediate tariff relief, saying the meeting would be “the start of a broader discussion.”

Article content

He said there were some areas where the two sides could make quick progress, such as easing travel restrictions on each other’s citizens. But the goal will also be to set conditions for longer-term progress on trickier matters, he added. 

Article content

“We’re starting from a very low base and we can move quite substantially before we start to get to sensitive areas,” Carney told reporters on Monday.

Article content

Canada currently has steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, which were imposed in 2024 in an effort to match US policies. 

Article content

Carney is seeking to balance his security interests, which overlap with Washington, against his country’s economic wellbeing, which is being tested by Trump’s aggressive trade war. His Asia tour is part of his recently announced goal to double Canada’s exports to markets outside the US within a decade to net an extra C$300 billion ($215 billion) in trade.

Article content