Free-trade talks with China: Proceed with caution
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CHARLES BURTON Special to The Globe and Mail Published Monday, Jun. 05, 2017 5:00 AM EDT Last updated Monday, Jun. 05, 2017 12:00 AM EDT
Charles Burton is an associate professor of political science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario and is a former Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing
June 2 marked the end of the 90-day period that federal officials allocated for public input into Canada’s potential free-trade negotiations with China. But the so-called “consultation” bore little resemblance to the process that Ottawa uses when it is serious about getting feedback on policy.
People who are called to make presentations to parliamentary committees have their airfare, hotels and meals paid, and a transcript of the hearing is immediately made publicly available.
In this case, officials will simply issue a summary report that likely supports the government in moving from the current “exploratory talks” to binding negotiation of a Canada-China free-trade agreement.
At any rate, Ottawa’s approach to negotiating free trade with China is already known – it’s on the government’s Canada-China free-trade consultations website. For example, in the FAQs, the question that concerns most Canadians (“Will Canada address human rights concerns in China through an FTA?”) gets a boilerplate response: “The promotion and protection of human rights is an integral part … in our long-standing relationship with China.” Fair to say we can take that as a “no.” On the contrary, Chinese authorities make it crystal clear that unless Canada commits to ceasing to “interfere in our internal affairs” there will be no lucrative trade deal.
The hard truth is that Beijing doesn’t really need a free-trade agreement with Canada. China already has excellent access to Canadian markets because of our low tariffs, our fair and transparent business regulations and our impartial rule of law to adjudicate contract disputes. Canada, of course, has nowhere near a level playing field in China, where many sectors are closed to Canadian goods, services and investment. Whether a free-trade agreement with China will shrink our current 3:1 trade deficit is very much an open question.
The prospect of strengthening Canada's comprehensive engagement with China, including economic and trade activity, is certainly alluring, especially given the erratic state of our relations with the Trump regime. But don’t expect free-trade talks to enrich our business with China if the process only forces Canada to bow to Beijing-imposed conditions on other important aspects of the economic relationship.
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