cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31793106
[Canadian Prime Minister] Mark Carney Wednesday rejected accusations from his Conservative rival that he’s beholden to Beijing and said he thinks Canada’s trade-diversification strategy should prioritize boosting commerce with “like-minded countries” in Europe instead of China.
The Canadian government is trying to shift trade away from the United States in the face of growing protectionist tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump and his challenges to Canadian sovereignty, where he argues that Canada should be annexed as the “51st state” because it allegedly can’t exist without the U.S.
Asked if Canada should boost trade with China as it tries to reduce trade with the U.S., Mr. Carney pointed to Europe instead.
“We want to diversify with like-minded partners. That’s why I went to Europe in my first days as Prime Minister,” the Liberal Leader said during a campaign stop in Windsor, Ont., referring to a visit to Paris and London where he talked about Canadian companies playing a greater role in Europe’s military buildup.
“There are partners in Asia with whom we can build deeper ties,” Mr. Carney said. “But the partners in Asia that share our values don’t include China.”
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That’s pretty dumb, Carney. Our current situation is a product of too much focus on too few export markets. Refusing to expand trade with China is choosing to act with a limb tied behind our back for no good reason.
I suspect this is one part electioneering and one part being cautious. I expect collaboration with China to increase if he wins the election, whether we consider them our “preferred” partner or not.
Besides, China is already the technology leader in many respects and becoming in more of them over time. If we enter a world where China sells workstation/server class CPUs for a tenth of the cost of US brands, we won’t be able to ignore that cost reduction.
China is just another US, only less sympathetic.
And despite everything, short of a real war we will continue to trade with the US at a reduced capacity. Which is fine. The goal of our trading strategy ought to be diversification to avoid a monopsony-like situation where any individual buyer is buying enough of our exports to severely damage us if they stop (that is, the situation we’re in now).