China and Canada announce tariffs aid after a high-stakes assembly

Chinese chief Xi Jinping and Canadian PM Mark Carney have announced decrease tariffs, signalling a reset in their international locations’ relationship after a key assembly in Beijing.

China is expected to decrease levies on Canadian canola oil from 85% to 15% by 1 March, while Ottawa has agreed to tax Chinese electric autos at the most-favoured-nation price, 6.1%, Carney informed reporters.

The deal is a breakthrough after years of strained ties and tit-for-tat levies. Xi hailed the “turnaround” in their relationship but it is also a win for Carney, the first Canadian chief to go to China in practically a decade.

He has been attempting to diversify Canadian commerce away from the US, his nation’s greatest trading accomplice, following the uncertainty brought about by Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs.

The deal could also see more Chinese investments in Canada, proper on America’s doorstep.

Carney himself appeared to allude to the truth that this was a end result of Trump’s tariffs, which have now pushed one of the US’s key allies towards its greatest rival.

He informed reporters that Canada’s relationship with China had been more “predictable” in latest month and that he discovered talks with Beijing “realistic and respectful”.

He also made clear Ottawa does not agree with Beijing on everything, including that in his discussions with Xi he made clear Canada’s “red lines”, including human rights, considerations over election interference and the need for “guardrails”.

Observers believe Carney’s go to could set an instance for other international locations across the world who are also feeling the ache from Washington’s tariffs.

In distinction, Xi has been attempting to show that China is a secure international accomplice and has been urging more pragmatic ties – in the phrases of Beijing, “a win-win” for all.

And it seems to be working. The South Korean president and the Irish prime minister have both visited Beijing in latest weeks. The UK prime minister is expected to go to soon and so is the German Chancellor.

Carney said the “world has changed dramatically” and how Canada positions itself “will shape our future for decades to come,” he added.

Earlier in his three-day go to, he had said that the Canada-China partnership units the two international locations up for a “new world order”. He later added that the multilateral system had been “eroded, to use a polite term, or undercut”.

As the Chinese and Canadian delegations sat down in the Great Hall of the People on Friday, Xi said: “The healthy and stable development of China-Canada relations is conducive to world peace, stability, development, and prosperity.”

Tariffs have been a key sticking level between the two sides.

In 2024, Canada imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese electric autos, following related US curbs.

Last yr, Beijing retaliated with tariffs on more than $2bn (£1.5bn) of Canadian farm and food merchandise like canola seed and oil. As a end result Chinese imports of Canadian items fell by 10% in 2025.

China is Canada’s second-largest trading accomplice, recording more than C$118bn ($85bn; £63bn) in two-way merchandise commerce in 2024.

That’s a long method behind the US, Canada’s closest ally, which traded more than $761bn (£568bn) price of items with Ottawa in 2024.

But financial ties with China are more and more important for Carney, who said forward of his go to that Canada was centered on building a “more competitive, sustainable and independent economy” in the face of “global trade disruption”.

Carney, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, met senior executives from distinguished Chinese companies, including an electric vehicle battery maker and an power giant.

On Thursday the two international locations signed several agreements on power and commerce cooperation.

The go to is a “reset of a relationship” that may be “modest in ambition” but “much more realistic about what we can reasonably obtain”, said Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and vice-president at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

The last Canadian PM to go to China was Justin Trudeau, who met Xi in Beijing in 2017.

That go to took place before the relationship soured in 2018, following Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer at the Chinese tech giant Huawai, at the request of the US.

Days later, China detained Canadian residents Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on espionage fees – a transfer critics saw as retaliation for Meng’s arrest, which China denied.

Meng and both Michaels were launched in 2021.

Ahead of the Carney-Xi assembly, Michael Kovrig wrote on X that the go to should not just be about warming ties but also “managing leverage”.

Kovrig described Chinese negotiators as “extremely adroit, calculating, and always looking for leverage”.

“That’s why engagement has to be handled with discipline,” he wrote, including that Carney should also advocate for Canadians imprisoned in China. There are about 100 of them, according to Canadian media.

Speaking to reporters, Carney was clear that with international locations that do not share the same values, Ottawa will have interaction on a “narrower, more specific” method.

“We’re very clear about where we cooperate, where we differ,” he said, including that Chinese claims over self-governed Taiwan and Hong Kong’s jailed pro-democracy determine Jimmy Lai came up in “broad discussions”.

Canada and China have “different systems”, he said, which limits the breadth of their cooperation.

“But to have an effective relationship, we have direct conversations. We don’t grab a megaphone and have the conversations that way.”