Canada Development Report: Frequent INTERACTION between the United States and Canada China and Canada

China Youth Daily Client News (China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Ma Ziqian) Social Science Literature Publishing House published the "Canada Blue Book: Canada Development Report (2021)" on January 19. The report provides an in-depth analysis of hot issues such as political affairs, foreign affairs, economic development and social policy in Canada from 2020 to 2021, focusing on issues such as the development of Canadian politics, Canada-U.S. relations and China-Canada relations.

The report believes that the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and the transition of power in the United States are the two most important factors affecting Canada's internal affairs and diplomacy in 2020, and the political situation, diplomacy, economy, society and other aspects of Canada's political parties have undergone major changes and adjustments due to the epidemic situation. To stabilize the pandemic and boost the economy, the Trudeau administration is looking for opportunities to hold early elections to regain the majority party's ruling position. The federal government is investing "at all costs" to support all walks of life, all groups of people affected by COVID-19, and vaccines and other areas that are critical to controlling the outbreak.

In terms of US-Canada relations, the two countries have frequent interactions, but the US "America First" policy is quite worrying for the Canadian side. After the current US President Biden took office, the two countries gradually resumed more benign interaction than during the Trump era, and it is expected to engage in dialogue and communication in more areas, but Biden's version of "America First" still worries Canada. The Democratic Party has traditionally been more conservative than the Republican Party, and from the interaction between the heads of state of Canada and the United States since Biden took office, and from a series of Canada-related policies promulgated by the White House, it can be seen that the United States is responding to Canada or making demands on Canada on the premise that it is in its own interests. On environmental and trade issues, the United States has completely ignored Canada's demands. However, in the face of such an United States, Canada does not have much leverage in its hands.

In terms of China-Canada relations, the report shows that China-Canada relations under the epidemic situation have not improved much under the condition that there is already a diplomatic crux. The Trudeau administration proposed in 2019 to reassess China-Canada relations and plan to develop a new china policy framework, but this framework has not taken shape for more than a year. Canada's China policy remains torn between dependence on allies and the pursuit of limited diplomatic independence.

Over the past year, trade between China and Canada has remained not too bad under the influence of the epidemic and bilateral relations, and even has the tendency to strengthen, which is a better phenomenon in bilateral relations. However, China-Canada relations have always faced pressure from the United States and the impact of Sino-US competition, and the complementarity of the two economies needs to be based on a healthier and better political relationship. In particular, the report points out that China and Canada have strong complementarity in the fields of agricultural trade economy and agricultural scientific research, with broad cooperation space and great potential for cooperation. China is one of Canada's most influential global trading partners in agriculture and aquaculture, and has been Canada's second largest export market since 2012. Canada's agricultural exports are more complementary to China's agricultural imports and show a trend of further expansion.

At the same time, the challenges facing China-Canada agricultural cooperation are also different. On the one hand, Western countries such as the United States and Australia, as Canada's largest geopolitical partners and allies, are also competitors in the field of agricultural cooperation between Canada and China. On the other hand, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still uncertainty about whether Canada can increase its food exports and investment in agriculture and food processing.

Source: China Youth Daily client