Canada's deal with China signals it is serious about shift from US

Summary

Canada's deal with China signals it is serious about shift from USNadine YousifSenior Canada reporterWatch: Canada-China trade relationship "more predictable" than with US, says CarneyPrime Minister Mark Carney's new approach to Canada's foreign policy can perhaps be distilled in one line: "We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be."That was his response when asked about the deal struck with China on Friday, despite concerns over its human rights record and nearly a year after he called China "the biggest security threat" facing Canada. The deal will see Canada ease tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that it imposed in tandem with the US in 2024. In exchange, China will lower retaliatory tariffs on key Canadian agricultural products.Experts told the BBC the move represents a significant shift in Canada's policy on China, one that is shaped by ongoing uncertainty with the US, its largest trade partner. "The prime minister is saying, essentially, that Canada has agency too, and that it's not going to just sit and wait for the United States," said Eric Miller, a Washington DC based trade adviser and president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.Carney told reporters on Friday that "the world has changed" in recent years, and the progress made with China sets Canada up "well for the new world order".Canada's relationship with China, he added, had become "more predictable" than its relationship with the US under the Trump administration. He later wrote, in a social media post, that Canada was "recalibrating" its relationship with China, "strategically, pragmatically, and decisively".In Canada, as daylight broke on Friday, reaction to the deal was swift.Some, like Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, hailed it as "very good news". Farmers in Moe's province have been hard hit by China's retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola oil, and the deal, he said, would bring much needed relief.But Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province is home to Canada's auto sector, was ...