Viewing cable 07OTTAWA213, CANADIAN GOVERNMENT INCREASINGLY FOCUSED ON CHINA

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UNCLAS OTTAWA 000213 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAN AND EAP/CM 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN ETRD CA CH
SUBJECT: CANADIAN GOVERNMENT INCREASINGLY FOCUSED ON CHINA 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and 
International Trade Minister David Emerson recently returned 
to Canada from separate, overlapping trade and economic trips 
to China. Both trips were described in the press and by 
government officials in positive terms. Excluding an 
agreement to cooperate on scientific research, the trips 
resulted in no apparent deliverables for Canada. However, 
they did serve to placate Canadian business leaders who had 
been concerned that the Canadian Government was not paying 
enough attention to China. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Department of Finance officials told econoff that 
Finance Minister Flaherty's January 16 - 22 trip to Beijing 
and Shanghai had three goals: to support bilateral trade, to 
encourage access for Canadian financial firms in China, and 
to advance the overall Canada - China relationship. Colleen 
Barnes, Department of Finance Strategic Planning and Trade 
Senior Chief said that Flaherty,s trip was productive and 
that he had good exchanges with Chinese regulators and senior 
leaders. However, she added that although Canada had raised 
its market access concerns at high levels, she didn't know 
"if they would get anywhere." 
 
¶3. (SBU) Martin Charron, Deputy Director, Asia and Oceania 
Commercial Relations, Department of Foreign Affairs and 
International Trade, said that Minister Emerson was very 
pleased with his January 14 ) 19 trip to China where he 
visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The Minister was 
accompanied by business leaders in the transportation and 
logistics services sector. Charron explained that the 
Minister Emerson and Xu Guanhua, the Chinese Minister of 
Science and Technology, signed a science and technology 
cooperation agreement that establishes a secretariat for 
encouraging cooperation and allocates $5.25 million (CAD) for 
implementation. Charron indicated however, that there was 
little substance to the agreement and it was unclear exactly 
what, if anything, it would lead to. 
 
¶4. (U) According to the results of an annual Department of 
Foreign Affairs survey, Canadians increasingly view China as 
important to Canada. The survey asked Canadians to list the 
two countries that they believed to be most important to 
Canada. The United States was most frequently listed, named 
by 35 percent of respondents. China came in second, at 25 
percent. Last year, China was in third place, listed by only 
16 percent of those polled. 
 
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Trade Statistics 
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¶5. (U) All statistics are from the U.S. Census Bureau and 
Statistics Canada. 
 
Annual Exports to China (2005): 5,893 million USD 
Annual Imports From China (2005): 24,361 million USD 
 
Exports to China, as a percentage of all exports (2005): 
1.63 
Imports from China, as a percentage of all imports (2005): 
7.75 
 
China is Canada's fourth largest export market and second 
largest provider of imports. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
WILKINS