I spent this week in Beijing with Prime Minister Mark Carney, reporting on his landmark state visit that yesterday led to the announcement of a tariff-reduction deal on some Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola products.
The trip has been a whirlwind of meetings with Chinese industry and top government officials, culminating in Mr. Carney’s meeting Friday with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.
[Read: Canada Breaks With U.S. to Slash Tariffs on Some Chinese Electric Vehicles]
The Canadian delegation is a small army of senior cabinet ministers such as Mélanie Joly, the minister for industry, and Tim Hodgson, the minister for energy, as well as numerous policy advisers and diplomats. During downtime, Mr. Carney and others were spotted squeezing in dawn workouts at the hotel gym, and Ms. Joly celebrated her 47th birthday.
On Friday, Mr. Carney announced at a Beijing park in freezing temperatures that as of March 1, Canada will allow the import of 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles at a 6.1 percent tariff, down from 100 percent. In exchange, China will remove its 100 percent tariffs on Canadian canola meal, and lower the tariff on canola seed from 85 percent to 15 percent. Mr. Carney also announced that China would allow Canadian tourists to travel there without a visa.
As we pack our bags in Beijing to get back on the plane and fly to Doha, Qatar, for Mr. Carney’s next stop, here are some noteworthy observations from the ground.
‘More predictable’
During his news conference in Beijing on Friday I asked Mr. Carney if China was now a more predictable and reliable partner to Canada than the United States.
What he said is indicative of the rupture in the relationship between Canada and the U.S. and the state of affairs as Canada enters the year of a critical review of its free trade with the United States and Mexico.
“Our relationship with the United States, and this is no insight, is much more multifaceted, much deeper, much broader than it is with China,” he said. “But yes, in terms of the way that our relationship has progressed in recent months with China, it is more predictable, and you see results coming from that.”
Mr. Trump appeared nonplused by the Beijing agreement. “That’s OK, that’s what he should be doing,” he said of Mr. Carney’s deal, speaking to the news media at the White House on Friday. “It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If he can get a trade deal with China, he should do that.”
‘We take the world as it is’
Mr. Carney had to answer questions about China’s track record meddling in Canadian affairs (he had named China as the biggest threat to Canada’s security on the campaign trail last year); China’s human-rights track record; and the treatment of Taiwan.
In answering, Mr. Carney succinctly encapsulated his Realpolitik dogma: “We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” he said.
He explained that differences of opinion and governance systems between Canada and China mean that the relationship will remain narrow in scope. And he said he will not be taking a “megaphone” to broadcast his concerns, but rather relay them privately, breaking from his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, who was more outspoken in broadcasting Canadian values on the world stage.
[Read: Caught Between Superpowers, Canada Seeks a New Path in Beijing]
‘New world order’
Some observers on the further right of the political spectrum were quick to grab onto a phrase Mr. Carney used on Thursday during his meeting with Premier Li Qiang: “new world order.” The phrase means something very specific in conspiratorial circles: a secret plot by a global elite to install a totalitarian world government.
In fact, Mr. Carney meant something more literal and, perhaps, boring. On Friday he explained that he was referring to the nascent system that will become established in the ruins of the multilateral system of governance that the United States is abandoning, or, “to put it politely,” as Mr. Carney said, “undercut.”
After Doha, Mr. Carney will travel to Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (and my colleague Ian Austen will be there with him). He is expected to leave for Ottawa on Jan. 21.
Trans Canada
This section was compiled by Vjosa Isai, a reporter based in Toronto.
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Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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