Canada and China will hold “exploratory talks” to gauge the possibility of starting free-trade negotiations, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
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The prime minister, who said the two countries hope to double bilateral trade by 2025, made today’s announcements alongside Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is in the midst of the first visit to Canada by a Chinese leader since 2010.
China has been eager to start free trade talks, but Canada has shown less enthusiasm – until Thursday.
Tuesday night saw Justin Trudeau the Canadian Prime Minister lay down everything we’ve ever wanted to hear about gender equality. Li said the deal reflected China’s goodwill to Canadian canola farmers.
China imported $5.6 billion of Canadian agricultural and food goods past year, according to the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance.
And these are just the first visits. “We have agreed to establish high-level financial dialogue mechanism, and annual meeting mechanism between the two foreign ministers”, Li said.
“Stepping up communications will increase mutual understanding and allow for proper handling of the issues and differences that we have”, Li said.
The dispute centres on the level of foreign material such as weeds, other crops and detritus that should be considered acceptable in Canada’s canola exports to China. Canada counts China as its second-largest export market after the United States.
A request by Beijing for an extradition treaty with Canada, which Trudeau has agreed to consider, has ruffled opposition parties in Ottawa, however.
Both leaders also acknowledged the thornier issues in their relationship, including ongoing political opposition in Canada to a potential extradition deal with China, which practices capital punishment and has a dubious human rights record.
Even if China wants to bring back legitimate economic criminals, there are widespread human rights concerns about the Chinese legal system, said Amnesty International secretary general Alex Neve.
“It’s impossible to imagine how you would have an extradition treaty that would line up with Canada’s obligations to not send people to face the death penalty”, Neve said in an interview.
“We have reached many new consensuses in economic and trade area”, said Li, adding that China is willing to import frozen beef from Canada and the two sides have reached an agreement on Canada’s canola exports to China.
“There shall be no torture of the people concerned”, he vowed.
“It is consistent with our national condition”, the Chinese leader said.
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“I can tell you firmly that China is endeavoring to build itself into a country of rule of law, based on global law and worldwide norms”, he concluded.
