Source: Global Times
Canada's Troy Media website published an article on March 31 titled "The Sino-US trade war is harming our food producers, while Ottawa is using political Band-Aids to address it." While the United States is constantly in the news with its political spectacles, another crisis is quietly unfolding in Canada. This crisis is happening in our fields, granaries, and fishing boats. China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on major Canadian agricultural food exports, including grains, canola seeds, pork, and seafood products such as lobsters... These are not abstract issues; they have immediate and tangible impacts on farmers, fishermen, and food producers.
What is the response from the Canadian government? The federal government announced doubling the maximum payment of the Agricultural Stabilization Fund. This sounds good, but the agricultural stabilization plan has long suffered from design flaws. This is a political show rather than real economic assistance. In contrast, after the U.S. threatened to impose tariffs on imported cars, Ottawa quickly promised a package of support for the Canadian auto industry. The imbalance is clear. Unlike electric vehicles, people cannot live without food.
We shouldn't pretend not to understand this situation. China's retaliation is clearly related to Canada's decision to impose tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. More notably, this is Ottawa's cooperation with Washington to target China together, and now our farmers are paying the price for this loyalty.
If Ottawa wants to demonstrate genuine support for Canadian agriculture, it needs to reconsider this strategy. The first step is to cancel the tariffs on China; the second step is to quickly re-engage in diplomatic dialogue with China. If our goal is, as some people in Ottawa suggest, to become more economically independent and reduce dependence on the United States, we should act now. (Author: Sylvain Charlebois)
Bloomberg reported on March 31, titled "Experts say that with global trade changes, Canada should 'try to cooperate with China'." As the global trade landscape changes, experts stated that despite some differences between Ottawa and Beijing, strengthening economic and trade relations with China aligns with Canada's best interests.
Jeff Mahon, director of the International Business and Geopolitical Consulting Department at Strategic Company, said that China is Canada's second largest trading partner. Despite tensions caused by trade disputes and other issues between the two countries, the complementarity of their economies cannot be ignored. "We can't agree on everything, but we need to engage diplomatically and commercially with China in many areas. It is absolutely necessary to try to cooperate with China to benefit from the economic and trade relationship."
Mahon said: "We are in a very turbulent period... Some crises caused by the situation with the United States also affect Canada's identity as an independent sovereign state and trading nation. There will be many problems politically and economically when dealing with China. In the foreseeable future, diplomatic relations between the two countries may remain tense, but Canada should be willing to 'test' whether China is willing to genuinely promote trade negotiations. Recent tariff actions between the two countries have caused serious damage to Canadian exporters, especially in the agricultural sector." (Author: Jordan Freyger)
American counterpunch website published an article on April 2 titled "Trump Tariffs' Results - Canada Establishes Closer Ties with China". Trump's unpredictable behavior makes the prospect of reaching a truly enduring agreement slim, so Canada must seek more stable partners. One of the options should be China, which would bring significant benefits to Canada. Especially in the electric vehicle industry, China's technological progress provides great opportunities for Canada. Chinese electric vehicles are high-quality and low-cost, with excellent battery technology. Canada can partially open its market to Chinese electric vehicles, and after a few years, Canadian manufacturers will adopt the latest Chinese technologies.
Obviously, many issues need to be addressed as Canada attempts to loosen its decades-long economic integration with the United States, but there is no reason to hesitate about cooperating with China. In this regard, Trump might have helped Canada. (Author: Dean Baker, Translated by Qiao Heng)
Original Article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7488852628420543010/
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