During Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's latest official visit to China, Canada reached broad consensus with China on deepening economic and trade cooperation and established joint preliminary arrangements for addressing bilateral trade issues, which will have a positive effect for both nations, said Canadian economists.
China and Canada have made specific arrangements to address trade issues involving electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, canola, and agricultural and aquatic products during Carney's visit to China from Jan 14 to 17, the first by a Canadian prime minister in eight years.
According to the arrangements, Canada will reduce its 100 percent tariff to 6.1 percent on up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles annually.
The two sides issued a joint statement, agreeing to advance their new strategic partnership and deliver outcomes in the areas of macroeconomic engagement, economic and trade cooperation, energy, finance, people-to-people and cultural exchanges. They signed eight cooperation documents, consolidating the momentum of improvement in bilateral relations.
Both sides also signed an economic and trade cooperation roadmap, and agreed to support exchanges and cooperation in clean energy, and strengthen cooperation in conventional energy such as oil and gas resource development.
"First of all, I think it was certainly positive. I think it's positive for both countries. I think China can gain from some of our agri food products that are very high quality and I think well regarded in China. But also for Canada, it's obviously a very important gain," said Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada.
The Canada-China Business Council (CCBC), a premier non-profit, bilateral organization founded in 1978 providing services and support to more than 300 member organizations and to over 2,500 business professionals in both countries, said the economic and trade cooperation arrangements will bring new development opportunities and further deepen bilateral investment relations in key areas for the two countries.
"This deal is opening up and it was very specifically emphasized by Prime Minister Carney in the agreements and joint statement by the two leaders of Canada and China, that it opens up opportunity and that the plan is for Chinese automakers to come and partner up and invest in Canada. So it's actually opening up a path for job creation rather than for imposing pressure on our Canadian workers," said Bijan Ahmedi, executive director and chief operating officer of the CCBC.
Since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1970, China-Canada relations had long been at the forefront of China's relations with Western countries until they became strained a few years ago due to some irrational actions by the then Canadian government.
After Carney took office in 2025, the new Canadian government has proposed advancing the Canada-China strategic partnership and promoting greater outcomes in bilateral relations. In Oct 2025, President Xi Jinping met with Carney in Gyeongju, the Republic of Korea, where they reached important consensus, marking a turnabout in bilateral relations.
Canadian economists optimistic about Canada-China cooperation prospects
