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发帖数: 15215 | 1 Canada PM Harper in China for trade talks
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao
on Wednesday, kicking off a four-day trip aimed at prying open more of the
Chinese market for Canadian resources.
During the visit Harper will also hold talks with President Hu Jintao and
other top leaders that will likely focus on trade as oil and gas-rich Canada
seeks to boost ties with the energy-hungry Asian giant.
Canada -- heavily reliant on the United States to buy its exports -- is keen
to sell more commodities to China after Washington last month rejected a
proposed pipeline to carry oil from the Alberta tar sands to the US Gulf
Coast.
The Keystone XL pipeline was viewed as crucial to Canada's economic
prosperity, by opening up new avenues to sell products from its landlocked
oil sands to the United States and abroad.
"If you look at the world economy and where it's growing, the Asia-Pacific
region is where the activity is," Harper's spokesman, Andrew MacDougall,
told AFP ahead of the visit.
"Canada needs to be more engaged in the Asia-Pacific region," he said,
adding that the trip's aim of diversifying Canada's markets was largely "in
response to decisions taken in the United States".
China is already Canada's second-largest merchandise trading partner.
In recent years, Canada has opened new trade offices and sent ministers on
46 trips to China, and sent back two Chinese fugitives, earning it goodwill
in Beijing.
For its part, China has been investing heavily in Canadian reserves of shale
gas -- hard-to-reach gas trapped in sedimentary rock -- as it seeks to
reduce its reliance on dirty coal and oil imports.
During this trip, Harper is expected to sign a few small deals such as a
foreign investment protection and promotion agreement with China, and secure
a loan of giant pandas to Canadian zoos.
After Beijing, he is scheduled to visit the southern city of Guangzhou and
the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing.
The Canadian leader has been joined by his wife Laureen, several ministers
and members of parliament and 40 business executives.
Harper was a vocal critic of China's human rights abuses during his first
term in office and MacDougall insisted he was still concerned about the
issue, but analysts expect it will be overshadowed by trade during the visit. |
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