Carney announces preliminary trade deal as Canada seeks new partnership with China

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China after talks in Beijing with President Xi Jinping, marking the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in eight years. Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said the two countries could “build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.” He announced a “preliminary” trade deal to reduce tariffs that includes a promise to import 49,000 electric vehicles from China at preferential tariff rates.

The two sides also signed agreements on clean energy and fossil fuels, reopening ministerial-level talks that have reportedly been frozen for nearly a decade, and on forestry, culture and tourism. The clean energy and fossil fuels agreement could allow Canada to import more Chinese clean-energy technology and raises the possibility of increasing fossil-fuel exports to China, part of Carney’s push to double non-US exports.

Canada’s turn toward Beijing comes after years of diplomatic spats dating to 2018 and amid efforts to reduce reliance on the US as President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Canadian products. Xi said their last meeting on the sidelines of the Apec summit in October 2025 “opened a new chapter” for relations.

Key Topics

World, Mark Carney, Canada, China, Xi Jinping, Electric Vehicles