Canadian premier Mark Carney on Saturday called his talks with China’s leader Xi Jinping a “turning point” in restoring their battered ties, adding he raised tricky topics with Beijing like foreign interference.
Carney also confirmed from the APEC summit in South Korea that he had apologised to Donald Trump over an anti-tariff ad campaign that prompted the US president to raise tariffs on Canada.
Canada’s relations with China have been among the worst of any Western nation, but on Friday Carney and Xi held the first formal talks between the countries’ leaders since 2017, as both manage Trump’s trade onslaught.
“This meeting marked a turning point in our bilateral relationship. We have now unlocked a path forward,” Carney told reporters.
Xi also invited Carney to visit China.
A Canadian statement said that the leaders discussed “respective sensitivities regarding issues including agriculture and agri-food products, such as canola, as well as seafood and electric vehicles.”
Carney said that he brought up alleged Chinese influence in Canadian elections, saying that it was “important to have that discussion” in order to get relations “back on track”.
Ties fell into a deep freeze in 2018 after the arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver and China’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges.
Ottawa and Beijing have since engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs including on Canadian canola, an oilseed crop used to make cooking oil, animal meal and biodiesel.
Trump ‘offended’
Trump last Saturday hiked tariffs on Canada by 10 percent after a “fake” anti-tariff ad campaign that featured late US president Ronald Reagan.
The US president flatly rejected any resumption of trade negotiations even after Carney said sorry for the ad.
“I did apologise to the president. The president was offended,” Carney said on Saturday, while insisting he was relaxed about when talks would resume.
“After all the noise of this week, Canada still has the best trade deal of any country with the US,” he said.
“We can spend our time watching Truth Social worrying about the reactions of individuals. We are staying calm,” he said.
“We’ll wait until they’re ready.”
He added that he took heart from the Toronto Blue Jays who are fighting to become the first Canadian team to win the baseball World Series since 1993.
“They take risk, they’re aggressive, and they’re a team… And our Canada is taking risks, and we are a team,” Carney said. “I will confess that I was looking at my phone during session two of APEC.”
