When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged Monday from a meeting with China's Premier Li Keqiang to announce that, surprise, our two countries are not starting free trade talks, it was widely interpreted as a personal snub of the PM, and a loss for the government. But in time, what didn't happen on Monday may come to be seen as less of an embarrassment, and more of a blessing.
Canada has a long list of reasons to be cautious about entering into a trade deal with China. Our potential partner is not a free-market democracy; it's an absolute dictatorship, sitting atop a state-dominated economy. It's also not a rule of law country. And perhaps most importantly, describing the deal that Ottawa and Beijing were until Monday believed to be about to start negotiating as a "free trade agreement" diminishes the scope and scale of what Beijing is after.
Canada has a long list of reasons to be cautious about entering into a trade deal with China. Our potential partner is not a free-market democracy; it's an absolute dictatorship, sitting atop a state-dominated economy. It's also not a rule of law country. And perhaps most importantly, describing the deal that Ottawa and Beijing were until Monday believed to be about to start negotiating as a "free trade agreement" diminishes the scope and scale of what Beijing is after.
