Trudeau will be kept busy, with a host of business-related meetings during stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
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China established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in hope of building its economic credibility around the world.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who will accompany Trudeau on the trip, hinted on August 21 the government was open to easing the 2012 restrictions.
Trudeau said Canada will strengthen its relationship with China in a more comprehensive way, to enhance peace and prosperity of the two countries and the world.
“[In] China, we’ve got a long way to go to improve the human rights situation, but at the same time we also made a lot of progress in the past many years”, Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui told the Canadian Press wire service in an interview prior to Trudeau’s trip.
Trudeau and Li also announced an agreement to extend a September 1 deadline that China had imposed on Canada to tighten its screening of canola exports, which had threatened to lead to major losses for Canadian farmers.
“My father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, played an important role in establishing a partnership between our two countries when he was prime minister”.
“This decision also indicates that Canada, like many new applicants, affirms the way this new bank is being run in the first eight months of operation and trusts in the bank’s unswerving commitment in the years to come”, Jin said. British Columbia instituted a tax on foreign real estate buyers, a move aimed nearly exclusively at wealthy Chinese driving up the Vancouver housing market, while Trudeau’s government has moved to collect more data on foreign home ownership.
China is Canada’s top export market for the oilseed, and Ottawa has taken an increasingly strong line in talks on a new standard, which industry participants say would significantly raise costs for exporters. Trudeau also hosted Wang in Ottawa on the heels of the G-7 summit that riled China, one Trudeau preceded with a state visit to Japan, a regional rival.
Trudeau and many business leaders argue that Canada has much to gain from closer economic ties with a rapidly growing economy and middle class in China, which is already Canada’s second-largest trading partner. Trudeau “can’t be worse than his predecessor Harper”, Shi said.
“The prime minister said that the approach that Canada takes when it comes to a free trade agreement is that it must include a number of important items – he mentioned two political and two economic issues”, Saint-Jacques said. “Until now, the China-Canada relationship has somewhat lacked in stability and regularity”.
One potential move would be to coax Canada into joining the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, an entity the US has declined to be part of.
“That’s why Canada has used opportunities to express its views to China”.
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This year’s oil investment figures were driven in part by a $1.3 billion purchase of a stake in some of Husky Energy’s pipelines and storage tanks in Alberta and Saskatchewan by companies controlled by Li.
