Notley looks for opportunities in China

Trade mission heads to Japan next after winding up China leg of 10-day trip

Premier Rachel Notley said it’s just a coincidence that she’s trying to rustle up trade opportunities in Asia while U.S. President Donald Trump slams Alberta industries — but his comments certainly highlight the need for new markets.

Those opportunities in Asia tend to come from face-to-face meetings and signed agreements, Notley said from China during a Monday morning telephone briefing, so her schedule is packed with roundtables, receptions and luncheons during the 10-day trip. Notley spoke to reporters from Guangdong province, before travelling to Tokyo on Tuesday.

“One of the things we know about engaging with Chinese investors and Chinese capital is that it’s very much a relationship-based dynamic,” said the premier.

Private-sector relationships tend to spring from the agreements and memorandums of understanding that elected officials sign on trade missions, Notley said.

“It’s a bit of a process, but it’s definitely one you see results from,” she said.

China recently announced the closure of 100 coal mines and is looking for ways to replace that with renewables and natural gas, which is similar to the Alberta government’s goal of phasing out coal by 2030.

“There are tremendous opportunities for other jurisdictions like ours” to piggyback on that technology as China is forced to make dramatic changes to meet its climate goals, said Notley.

Alberta also signed a sister-province agreement with Guangdong, becoming the second Canadian province to sign such an agreement, after British Columbia.

One of the things we know about engaging with Chinese investors ... is that it’s very much a relationshipbased dynamic.

Guangdong receives about 20 per cent of Canada’s exports to China and accounts for 25 per cent of China’s total imports.

Notley said she will be focusing on building markets for trade, agriculture and forestry in Japan and hopes to have some announcements to make about that soon.

The premier also addressed recent comments by Trump calling the North American Free Trade Agreement a “disaster for our country.”

Trump specifically targeted lumber and energy, two industries that help drive the Albertan economy. Lumber exports from Alberta in 2015 were $646 million in 2015 and the province exported more than $60 billion worth of crude oil and natural gas in that year.

Notley said Trump will have to be more specific before she can fully respond, but said “the more you diversify your markets, the less reliant you become on one market.” That goes for both oil and gas and Alberta’s forestry industry, where market diversification could shield the province from trade disputes with the United States, like the protracted softwood lumber dispute.

Notley said the mission to Asia is helpful in opening up competing markets, but wasn’t directly caused by protectionist noises coming from south of the border. The premier added that she’s not going to take her foot off the gas on diplomacy with the U.S.

“I suppose now it could look like we were quite prescient in that regard,” said Notley.