China ‘essential’ to Canadian strategy: Carr
TORONTO • Canada’s pursuit of deeper trade ties with China will not be hindered by the USMCA pact, as Ottawa seeks to make the Asian superpower an “essential component” of its trade diversification strategy, International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr said Monday.
Carr, who will co-chair a two-day business conference in China with Finance Minister Bill Morneau later this week, told the Toronto Region Board of Trade that “no conversation about the Pacific Region would be complete without talking about Canada’s second-largest trading partner, China.”
“We should be under no misapprehensions that our trading relationship with the U.S. will continue to be the most important … of course it will,” he said. “But there’s a value in expanding trade markets, including to China.
Asked about a controversial clause in the USMCA that would give any party the option to leave the pact with six months notice if another enters a free trade agreement with a non-market economy — widely believed to be China — Carr insisted “it doesn’t change anything.” The clause has fuelled worries that Washington, currently engaged in a trade war with Beijing, will attempt to interfere in Ottawa’s trade relationships.
“We’ve given up no sovereignty and no, I’m not concerned about it,” Carr said, noting that the current North American Free Trade Agreement already has a provision allowing for an exit with six months notice.
Carr and Morneau’s trip to Beijing comes during the same week as a separate trade mission to China led by Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence McAulay, Treasury Board president Scott Brison, and the premiers of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. The goal of that effort is to promote Canada’s food, education, clean growth and tourism sectors.
Exports to China from Atlantic Canada grew 37 per cent last year to more than $1.5 billion, with seafood exports having doubled in the past five years alone, according to the federal government. Chinese tourism is also on the rise, while Atlantic Canadian universities currently get more than 30 per cent of their international students from the economic powerhouse.
Canada has built an “unparalleled platform” of trade relationships spanning 14 free trade agreements covering 51 countries, Carr said, including the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union and the recently ratified the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership (CPTPP).
But taking advantage of those deals will mean engaging small and mediumsized enterprises in global supply chains and infrastructure projects and mobilizing “non-traditional and first time exporters,” including businesses led by women and Indigenous people, Carr said.
“When only 11 per cent of women-owned businesses export, we are leaving hundreds of billions of dollars on the table.”
The previous government scaled back programs available through the Trade Commissioner Service to only serve companies already established in overseas markets, Carr said.
“We will reverse that trend and get our sales numbers way up,” he said. “And Canada will not see the multilateral trading system eroded. We will defend it and we will reform it.”