Canada is cozying up to China. It’s not surprising because of President Donald Trump’s bullying, but it is shortsighted.
Describing a “new world order,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had the gall during a trip to Beijing last week to claim that China is a “more predictable” partner than the United States.
Trump has been a bad neighbor, so maybe Carney is trolling Trump for musing about making Canada the 51st state. After all, he acknowledged last year while campaigning for the premiership that China is the biggest threat to his country’s security. At the same time, the Greenland saber-rattling, which threatens to upend NATO, is deeply unnerving Canada.
Carney told reporters last Friday, following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, that the two countries are “forging a new strategic partnership.”
It looked quite friendly. Carney is the first Canadian prime minister to travel to China since 2017, and his visit produced significant relaxations in trade barriers. Canada will slash its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles to 6.1 percent, while lifting the cap on EVs coming from China to 49,000 per year. In return, China will cut its 84 percent tariff on canola seed to 15 percent. Canadians will also be able to travel to China without visas.
Global trade happens with or without the approval of the U.S. It is predictable than an explosion of tariffs imposed by Trump has driven trading partners to look elsewhere, especially as Trump aims to negotiate his own deal with Xi.
China is the “second-largest trading partner and third-largest investor,” Carney said when announcing his deal with Xi. He did not mention Canada’s largest trading partner and investor: the United States.
But there is a fine line between “pragmatism” and naiveté which Carney has already started to blur. Carney and Xi did not simply agree to new trading parameters. They put on a show.
Frustrations with one American president need not give way to the agenda of dictators. “I had discussions with President Xi about the situation in Greenland, about our sovereignty in the Arctic, about the sovereignty of the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark,” Carney said. “And I found much alignment of views in that regard.”
What? There is universal agreement within NATO that the Arctic must be protected from China and Russia. Any suggestion that Ottawa and Beijing agree on geopolitical strategy concerning the Arctic is either deeply insincere or worryingly naive.
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