Written by: Aidan Jonah
The government of former Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, triggered more than two decades of strong Canada-China trade relations after an election victory in 1993. But after Canada kidnapped Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the United States of America (USA), Canada-China relations have deteriorated.
It would take a true shock to the system for Canada’s politicians and mainstream media to consider growing trade ties with China, given the pervasive China bashing they and the intelligence agencies have fomented. Last summer, Canada showed its servility by following the USA in implementing a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).
Enter Donald Trump, President of the USA.
After being elected as the USA’s President, Trump threatened tariffs on both Canada and Mexico under the guise of supposed unfairness of the Canada-US trade balance and claims of fentanyl from the two countries flooding into the USA. Trump implemented a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1 and implemented a 30-day pause of these tariffs two days later. But, seven days later, Trump implemented “a 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum”.
By mid-February, the Toronto Star reported that British Columbia’s Premier, David Eby, was calling for Canada to “revisit its tariff policy with all countries” and “a concession in the trade dispute it has with China.” The current trade dispute is centered on Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs and a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum.
Grain Growers of Canada head Kyle Larkin, which “represents about 70,000 grain farmers”, strongly urged Canada to work with China to resolve the tariffs dispute, which saw China “levy a 100 per cent tariff on more than $1 billion worth of Canadian canola oil, meal and pea imports, and a 25 per cent duty on $1.6 billion worth of Canadian aquatic products and pork” on February 15.
Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance executive director Michael Harvey said the alliance wants Canada to engage with China in a bid to have it drop the aforementioned tariffs.
Both Eby and Larkin were clear that Canada couldn’t handle a trade war on two fronts.
Despite these calls, on March 13, Canada’s then-innovation, science and industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada wouldn’t drop its Chinese EVs, steel and aluminum tariffs.
Last month, in the Globe and Mail, Jeff Mahon, former Deputy Director of the Canadian foreign ministry’s China Division, urged Canada to engage with negotiations with China to “negotiate a new consensus” around trade. Such a new consensus would see China’s recent tariffs removed. Mahon wants to see Canada “seek new mechanisms to move zero-sum trade conflicts to positive-sum arrangements.”
This month, InsideHalton.com quoted Julian Karaguesian, an economist and lecturer at McGill University, as saying that Canada had followed “Washington’s playbook” with its Chinese EV tariff and “said Canada should sit down and talk with China.”
Despite foreign interference paranoia driven by Canada’s main intelligence agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, against Chinese Canadians and the Chinese government, the vision of a trade reset with China is back on the table on the minds of Canadian politicians and the mainstream media.
When it is established, the planned national Chinese Canadian organization against McCarthyism to be spearheaded by Senator Yuen Pau Woo – discussed in The Canada Files – would be well advised to initiate a push for a trade reset with China.
Trump’s tariffs on Canada could be a turning point for those who fight against Canadian McCarthyism and the push for Canada to decouple from China, if the moment is used intelligently.
Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, an independent news outlet covering Canadian foreign policy with a strong focus on Canada-China relations. Jonah wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
