Openness is key, McCallum says
Ambassador to Beijing praises Xi Jinping’s speech against protectionism
OTTAWA— Canada is a “long way” from a free trade deal with China but is about to embark on exploratory talks because it believes openness to global trade, not protectionism, is the way to go, says Justin Trudeau’s newly named ambassador to Beijing.
In an exclusive interview with the Star, John McCallum praised last week’s speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping that promoted global markets as being in line with Canada’s views, calling it an “excellent” speech that was “open-minded” and “internationalist.”
In doing so, the former federal immigration and citizenship minister underscored a stark contrast in the economic and trade policies of Canada and the U.S. under the Trudeau and Trump governments.
McCallum was in Ottawa for briefings before taking up his diplomatic post in early March. He spoke hours after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order to quit the Asia-Pacific free trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and reiterated his determination to renegotiate or quit the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Trump fulfilled his campaign promise to kill the TPP as one of his first orders of business, with his press secretary Sean Spicer portraying it as a lopsided deal that favours China or other countries at the expense of American interests.
Spicer told reporters at a televised White House briefing that America is interested only in bilateral agreements that benefit American interests.
McCallum did not comment directly on the Trump administration’s trade moves. He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet are very focused on ensuring the “absolutely critical” Canada-U.S. trade relationship is maintained.
However, asked if Trump’s withdrawal from the TPP and vow to renegotiate NAFTA adds more impetus to reach a free trade deal with China, McCallum said, “We will do both things at the same time. We will pursue our relations with the United States as the very top priority. But we will also strongly push for closer connection, stronger ties, deeper integration with China” in order to boost jobs and economic growth for Canada’s middle class.
McCallum said he was not putting the Canada-U.S. and Canada-China relationships on equal footing but noted: “It is China, in particular, and Asia, in general, which are the fastest-growing parts of the globe. So you don’t have to be a Nobel-prize in economics to understand that if you’re talking about a country with 1.3 billion people with a very high rate of economic growth, then it’s good for our economy to be associated with that fast-growing economic tiger.”
Signed last year, the TPP — which does not include China — liberalized trade rules for 12 countries around the Pacific Rim, including the U.S., Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, New Zealand, Chile and Peru, representing about 40 per cent of the world’s economic output. Only Japan had ratified it. With Trump’s move it now appears to be dead.
Last week, in a wide-ranging address to the World Economic Forum, Xi portrayed China as the new champion of free trade.
“We must remain committed to developing global free trade and investment, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through opening-up and say no to protectionism,” Xi said at Davos. “Pursuing protectionism is like locking oneself in a dark room. While wind and rain may be kept outside, that dark room will also block light and air. No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war.”
McCallum agreed with Xi’s view. “I thought it was an excellent speech,” he said. “I think some of the points which he articulated certainly coincide with our own government’s way of thinking, when he (Xi) talked about the dangers of protectionism — I can’t remember the exact term — but that you close yourself in a dark room and you miss the light. Well, I think that reflects our view too. That is why we are a country that is pursuing more openness, freer trade all around the world.
“We just concluded a deal with Europe. We are talking to China. We are talking to India. We are totally in sync with that open-looking, openminded internationalist view which President Xi expressed in Davos,” McCallum said.