In announcing the start of free trade talks, the two countries said two longstanding disputes had been at least partially resolved to improve access for Canadian beef and canola to China’s burgeoning market.
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Both nations are now talking about an extradition treaty, which China has long wanted so it can press for the return of what it says are corrupt officials who fled to Canada.
Li arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday.
367,000 – Number of Canadian visitors to China in 2014.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trudeau said the two countries discussed issues related to national security, and are engaged in early discussions about an extradition treaty.
“We followed all the rules of the policy in place, which have been recently updated by the previous Conservative government and I can assure everyone that both the policy itself and the administration of the policy was done in accordance to all the rules”, he said.
Accompanied by a high-level delegation, Li concluded on Wednesday his participation in the 71st United Nations General Assembly in NY, the first stopover of his tour of the Americas, which started in Canada and will end in Cuba.
On Thursday a message was posted on the Facebook page of Gerald Butts, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary, on behalf of Butts and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff.
“This agreement has provides an effective legal measure between China and Canada to confiscate the criminal proceeds transferred to the other country and opened doors to more such cooperation with other countries”, Sun Ang, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying by the Legal Daily on Friday. Two-way goods trade between Canada and China amounted to almost $85.8 billion in 2015, a 10.1 percent increase from 2014, and accounted for 8.1 percent of Canada’s total goods trade.
Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch, said it is “peculiar” for Canada and to be pursing an extradition treaty with China, because it is one of three countries-including the United States and Australia-that have rebuffed Beijing’s requests in the past.
Trudeau called the “historic nature” of their back-to-back visits to each other’s countries a chance to deepen and strengthen the collaboration and co-operation between the two countries on a broad range of issues. “I think that, in a few weeks, we’ll have a more concrete answer about how will this be done, and in what terms”, Ciolos said.
Li said this reflected, “China’s commitment to, and China’s goodwill to, farmers and producers in Canada”.
Li arrived in Ottawa with his wife, Cheng Hong, late Wednesday, following the United Nations General Assembly in NY.
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China has embraced Trudeau in part because of his father, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who in 1970 became one of the first Western leaders to establish diplomatic relations with Communist China.
