‘Not in the Best Interests of Canada’: Business Coalition Pushes Back Against Premiers’ Call for Deeper Trade Ties With China

Jul 25, 2025 - 10:00 Updated: Jul 25, 2025 - 09:53

‘Not in the Best Interests of Canada’: Business Coalition Pushes Back Against Premiers’ Call for Deeper Trade Ties With China

A business coalition is raising concerns about calls from some of Canada’s premiers for Ottawa to strengthen trade ties with China in response to U.S. tariffs, calling the move short-sighted and contrary to Canada’s interests.

The Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada (CCMBC) issued a statement on July 23, warning that the proposal overlooks China’s record of “unfair” trade practices, human rights abuses, and interference in Canadian democracy.

The statement came in response to recent remarks by some premiers, including Ontario’s Doug Ford and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, suggesting that Canada should strengthen trade ties with Beijing to reduce its reliance on the United States.

“Have [the premiers] forgotten that China is the country that regularly breaks trade rules, dumps steel and other products in Canada, kidnaps Canadians when it suits them, steals intellectual property, violates international treaties in Hong Kong, is the world’s largest polluter and has eroded Canada’s manufacturing sector by unfair trade practices?” CCMBC president Catherine Swift said, adding that making such a decision in response to trade tensions with the United States is not “in the best interests of Canada.”

“China is the last country with which Canada should want to get closer.”

Earlier in the day, Moe said China’s retaliatory measures in response to Canadian tariffs have hurt Saskatchewan’s agricultural sector, making it “important” to engage with the Chinese regime to improve trade relations.

China imposed tariffs on Canadian agricultural and food products earlier this year, following Ottawa’s decision last October to apply 100 percent levies on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) and 25 percent tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.

“If we’re truly going to move and expand our reliance away from the United States in any way, shape, or form—and I would suggest the only way to do it is on additional products produced, not existing—we’re going to have to deal with China, and so we’re going to need a broader relationship with them,” Moe told reporters ahead of the premier’s final meeting in Muskoka.

Ford echoed Moe’s position, referencing the saying that the “enemy of our enemy is our friend.” He clarified that he does not view Americans as the enemy, but said U.S. President Donald Trump is “acting like the enemy.”

The Trump administration has imposed a number of tariffs on Canada, with the latest tariff escalation involving a possible increase to 35 percent on Aug. 1 because of Canada’s alleged “failure to stop drugs from pouring into our Country.”

Ford told reporters, “As long as China plays fair and doesn’t undercut our markets, be it the auto sector or any sector, I have no problem dealing with them, because we’re already dealing with them.”

He added he still supports tariffs on Chinese EVs, citing the need to “protect the EV sector.”

The U.S. government has taken an increasingly hard stance toward Beijing, criticizing the regime for “years of unfair trade practices,” including dumping, forced technology transfer, over capacity, and industrial subsidies. The Trump administration has also called on allies not to align themselves with China, especially amid trade tensions with that country.

Reacting to Ford’s remarks about improving relations with China, former Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole opposed the idea, saying that deepening ties with Beijing would come at a cost.

“We must and can diversify our trade relations but not at the detriment to our security or values,” he said in a July 23 social media post.

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was detained in China in 2018 for more than 1,000 days along with fellow Canadian Michael Spavor following Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s arrest in Vancouver, has expressed a similar view, saying that Canada should not move closer to China in response to U.S. trade tensions.

“The implicit deal: kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party in return for economic benefits, sacrifice Canadian manufacturing for agricultural exports,” he said in a July 14 social media post.

“It’s a devil’s bargain in which the long term costs would outweigh the benefits for Canada.”

Change in Stance

Ford’s latest remarks appear to differ from his position earlier this year, when he stated that “China is the problem” and called for Canada and the United States to work together as allies to confront Beijing as the primary challenge.

“China is ripping off American workers by hijacking global supply chains to unfairly benefit Chinese companies at the expense of U.S. industry and American communities,” Ford said during a Jan. 8 press conference in Ontario. He later said the trade dispute between Ottawa and Washington would “create the kind of economic uncertainty that only benefits China.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has also spoken against “unfair Chinese trade practices that harm workers in both of our countries,” saying in January that stronger ties with the United States would help both countries counter them.

Meanwhile, following the second day of meetings in Muskoka this week, the premiers issued a joint statement, calling on Ottawa to improve the trade relationship with Beijing.

“Premiers also call on the federal government to prioritize work towards the removal of Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola, peas, pork, and seafood and emphasized the critical importance of regular and ongoing engagement with China to improve the overall trade relationship,” reads their July 22 statement.

The business coalition argued in its July 23 statement that those advocating closer ties with Beijing are overlooking “medium-to-long-term considerations,” noting that Trump’s presidency is temporary and represents only a small chapter in the “centuries-long, massively successful” U.S.–Canada trade relationship.

“Forces within Canada who want closer relations with Communist China for their own gains are using Trump’s actions as an excuse to move away from the U.S,” said CCMBC president Swift.

“China has never done anything in Canada’s interests—in fact, quite the contrary,” she added. “There is zero reason to believe this will change in the future.”

Strained Relations

Relations between Ottawa and Beijing have been strained in recent years, marked by diplomatic rifts, trade tensions, and concerns over China’s involvement in foreign interference and transnational repression in Canada.

Tensions escalated last week when Prime Minister Mark Carney announced increased tariffs on steel imports from China, citing the need to protect Canada’s domestic steel industry from trade diversion.

The announcement drew criticism from Beijing, which threatened retaliatory measures, further escalating trade tensions stemming from Canada’s tariffs on China last year and China’s levies on Canadian products earlier this year.

Carney said last month that he and Chinese Premier Li Qiang had agreed to “regularize” high-level talks between the two countries, following a call between them.

He said Canada needs to address a number of issues with China, including trade disputes and the issue of fentanyl and its precursors, and that the discussion was “the start of a process of recalibrating the relationship with China.”

Meanwhile, Carney has previously raised concerns about China, saying during a federal leaders’ debate ahead of this year’s election that Beijing is the “biggest security threat to Canada.” He later expanded on the remark, describing China as a major source of foreign interference and adding that Ottawa is actively working to counter it.

China has been identified as the “most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions,” according to the final report of Canada’s Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, released earlier this year.

Following the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Canada in June, Carney said all leaders called on China to “refrain from market distortions and harmful overcapacity,” and that they had “ongoing serious concerns” about China’s destabilizing activities in the East and South China Seas.