Canada defends Huawei arrest after markets wobble

MONTREAL: Canada defended its arrest of an executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei on a US extradition request after markets wobbled on fears of fresh friction between Washington and Beijing.

With China demanding the release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said officers who arrested her Saturday as she was changing planes in Vancouver had acted on their own.

“I can assure everyone that we are a country (with) an independent judiciary. And they took this decision without any political involvement or interference,” Trudeau told a tech conference in Montreal.

Citing a court-ordered publication ban sought by Meng, Trudeau declined to comment further on the case, which according to a US senator was brought over Huawei’s activities in Iran.

The arrest took place on the same day that the US and Chinese presidents, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, had met for a long-awaited summit in Buenos Aires and spoken of easing an intensifying trade row. Markets were chaotic over news of the arrest.

On Wall Street, the broad-based S&P Index closed down 0.31 per cent after making up steep early losses.

“The concept of getting a quick resolution is fading,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley FBR, said of the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

China said that Meng – the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in China’s People’s Liberation Army – had violated no laws in either Canada or the United States.

“We have made solemn representations to Canada and the US, demanding that both parties immediately clarify the reasons for the detention, and immediately release the detainee to protect the person’s legal rights,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing.

Huawei also said in a statement that it was compliant with ‘all applicable laws and regulations where it operates.’ Huawei’s affordable smartphones have made strong inroads in the developing world, but the company has faced repeated setbacks in major Western economies over security concerns.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, acknowledged that he knew that Canada was planning to arrest Meng on Saturday just as all eyes were on the summit in Buenos Aires. — AFP