Canadian Prime Minister arrives in China to rebuild relations and trade

Beijing.- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney begins this Wednesday the first visit of a leader of his country to China in almost a decade marked by tensions with the Asian giant and by the deterioration of ties between Ottawa and Washington after Donald Trump’s return to power. Carney, who will remain in China for three days, will meet with Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and his Prime Minister, Li Qiang, as well as other political and business leaders with the intention of bringing positions closer to Beijing to improve Canada’s strategic and commercial position. The leaders of both countries already had a first contact at the end of last year in South Korea, where they met on the sidelines of the APEC summit and the Canadian accepted an invitation from his counterpart to visit China. Carney himself has made it clear that his presence in the Asian country is a direct response to the transformation of the commercial and political landscape that the second presidency of Trump is bringing about, who has imposed high tariffs on Canada despite being its main economic partner (China is the second).

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The trade tensions between China and Canada

The visit could thus represent a turning point in trade relations between Beijing and Ottawa after two years of exchanging blows, such as the tariffs that Canada, at the behest of Washington, imposed on China in August 2024, taxing Chinese electric vehicles by 100% and steel and aluminum by 25%. In response, the Chinese authorities applied in 2025 to imports of Canadian rapeseed oil rates of 100%, to those of rapeseed a 76%, and to pork and fishing a 25%, which is causing serious problems for Canadian producers. In the past, Beijing has indicated that it could eliminate tariffs on products Canadian in exchange for Ottawa doing the same with the obstacles to Chinese vehicles. It is expected that Xi and Carney will preside over the signing of agreements during the visit, which, according to analysts, could extend to areas such as trade and energy, something of special relevance now that the US intervention in Venezuela could cause a decrease in its imports of Canadian crude oil. Carney’s government is interested in reducing its trade dependence on the U.S., which is the destination for 76% of its exports, in addition to the friction caused by Trump’s bellicosity, who has expressed his intention to annex Canada.

Diplomatic Relations

Although the former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, tried to expand trade between his country and China, relations deteriorated in December 2018 when Canadian authorities, at the request of the U.S., detained Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, accused of violating sanctions imposed by Washington against Iran.

Chinese authorities, in retaliation, arrested two Canadian citizens, former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, whom they accused of espionage, in addition to imposing trade sanctions on Canada.

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Diplomatic relations between the two countries did not begin to improve until 2021 when Meng, Kovrig, and Spavor were released in a three-way agreement between Canada, the United States, and China. In 2023, however, Canadian intelligence services leaked that China, along with India, had interfered in Canada’s general elections and accused the country’s politicians of working for the Beijing authorities, in a scandal that resulted in the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat.