Minister stays in Beijing to talk free trade
As PM departs capital, a few officials will keep working on framework for discussions
GUANGZHOU, CHINA— Signalling that Canada’s hopes to launch free trade talks with China may yet bear fruit, International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne abruptly changed plans at the 11th hour and stayed in Beijing as the prime minister left the capital to attend a business summit in southern Guangdong province.
The scramble came immediately after Canadian leaders sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a private dinner in Beijing Tuesday night.
While the Canadian government’s plane was readying to take off from Beijing, at least two of Champagne’s aides sprung from their seats, snatched their luggage and darted off the aircraft.
An official from the Prime Ministers’s Office confirmed that Champagne stayed behind to continue trying to nail down a framework to launch trade talks, stating that Canada did not want to squander the momentum they had built over two days of discussions in the capital.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed optimism that free trade talks would kick off between the two countries. Canada’s ambassador to China, John McCallum, also told reporters that, despite an apparent setback when an expected announcement failed to emerge on Monday, the formal beginning of trade talks during Trudeau’s visit was still “conceivable.”
The PMO released a brief summary of Trudeau’s meeting with Xi Wednesday morning, as the prime minister prepared to deliver a keynote address on attracting investment to Canada to the Fortune Global Forum, a massive business conference in the Pearl River Delta city of Guangzhou that is expected to include wealthy executives like Apple CEO Tim Cook.
During their meeting, Xi and Trudeau discussed the “ongoing explor- atory discussions on potential trade negotiations,” as well as climate change, North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, and the plight of Rohingya people in Burma, according to the readout of their meeting.
The release made no mention of human rights or Canadians imprisoned in China, which Trudeau had said he would raise with Xi as he had done with Premier Li Keqiang earli- er in the week.
“I know that as we look to building a better future for the entire world, the friendship between Canada and China will play an important role in setting the tone and the approach that will characterize the 21st century,” Trudeau told Xi.
Trudeau’s second official visit to China as prime minister has been couched in expectations that Canada would become the first Group of Seven country to launch free trade talks with China, the world’s second-largest economy.
But those prospects were dampened Monday when Trudeau emerged from a bilateral meeting with Premier Li Keqiang, the country’s No. 2 leader, only to announce that the long-standing “exploratory” discussions on free trade would con- tinue between the two sides.
Canada and China have held four rounds of exploratory discussions on free trade since Trudeau’s last visit to China in September 2016.
On Tuesday, Trudeau met with a group of business leaders and industry representatives at a Beijing hotel, where he tried to reassure them that Canada is still working to create “a strong framework” to launch free trade discussions with China.
Preston Swafford, chief executive officer of Candu Inc. and chief nuclear officer at SNC Lavelin, said he was “a little disappointed” that formal trade talks weren’t announced on Monday, but added he understands the government’s position that it can’t rush into negotiations without clear-cut parameters for the talks.
Jim Everson, president of the Canola Council of Canada, also said he hoped the trade talks would have been formally launched by now.
“We are keen to see whether anything can come out of it today and on this mission (to China), but if not, we would really encourage the government of Canada to stay at the table and continue,” he said.
Trudeau and Champagne have said Canada is pushing for “progressive” issues like labour standards, gender rights and environmental regulations to be on the table for any future trade talks with China.
The prime minister did not say Tuesday what is holding back an agreement to launch negotiations, but described the process toward free trade as a long-term endeavour that will “take years” to complete.
“We now that the Chinese economy is going to continue to grow and modernize and evolve over the coming decades until it becomes the world’s largest economy, and it’s very much in our interest to make sure that we’re setting a framework and a clear set of rules and expectations for that relationship,” Trudeau said.