The leaders of the two countries, Canada and China, on Thursday finally agreed on a long term solution to a trade dispute over $2 billion worth of annual canola sales, keeping their arguments aside over the crop as they try to broaden trade ties.
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Trudeau said the two sides agreed to double the bilateral trade volume by 2025, and the economic relations between the two countries have huge potential that can create decent salaries and jobs.
Li first told reporters during last month during the prime minister’s own visit to China that the two countries had embarked on a feasibility study of a free trade deal.
This meeting of the two leaders in Canada comes less than a month after Trudeau’s visit to China surrounding the G20 summit in Shanghai, which included the signing of $1.2 billion in trade deals. “Canada’s meat packers and processors recognize and appreciate the persistent efforts of Prime Minister Trudeau, Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister MacAulay, and International Trade Minister Freeland in achieving restored access for bone-in beef products to this important and expanding market”, Reda added.
Li, meanwhile, praised a reboot of Sino-Canadian relations after a decade of cooling, which had been kicked off during Trudeau’s visit to China at the end of August.
448,000 – Number of Chinese visitors to Canada in 2014. “We need to always bear in mind the larger picture of our relations and we need to recognize that our common interests far outweigh our differences'”.
Before the joint press conference, the two leaders attended a signing ceremony for 14 bilateral cooperation documents.
Li was scheduled to meet later Thursday with Gov. Gen. David Johnston and sit down for dinner in Gatineau, Que., with Trudeau and wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.
Li arrived in Ottawa Wednesday afternoon for an official visit to Canada and will travel to Cuba on Saturday.
“For China, we have pretty sufficient amount of time to increase the quality of exports to China”, Li said through an interpreter.
Formal talks were agreed to on September 12 during high-level talks between Mr. Trudeau’s national security adviser, Daniel Jean, and a top Chinese Communist Party official.
This may be a more hard task to achieve, as Canada has remained steadfast in its policy of not extraditing criminal suspects to countries who have the death penalty, unless the Canadian side has been given an assurance the suspect will not be put to death.
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“If we abolish the death penalty more innocent people will probably lose their lives”, Li said.
