Canada PM Mark Carney to visit China next week for trade talks

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit Beijing next week, marking the first trip by a Canadian head of state to China in nearly a decade.

Carney will visit from 13 to 17 January. He plans to discuss trade, energy, agriculture and international security with Chinese officials, his office said.

It comes as he looks to build relations away from the US – its main market – with Canada facing trade uncertainty under US President Donald Trump.

Carney was formally invited to China after meeting with President Xi Jinping in South Korea in October. The trip marks a significant reset in relations between Canada and China, which have been locked in a trade dispute since 2024.

Canada had placed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in October 2024, mirroring similar action by the US. Later that same month, Canada placed a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminium.

China retaliated in March of last year by imposing tariffs on several Canadian agricultural products, including a 76% levy on canola seed imports and a 100% levy on canola oil, meal and peas.

These measures have hurt farmers in the western part of the Canada, as China is the largest importer of the country's canola seeds.

President Xi met Carney in October on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea. After the meeting, Carney said the Canada-China relationship is now at a "turning point" that he believes would yield positives for the Canadian economy.

"Distance is not the way to solve problems, not the way to serve our people," the prime minister said.

He added that China was "willing to work with Canada to push China-Canada relations back onto a healthy, stable, and sustainable correct track".

Carney has said he wants to double Canada's non-US exports in the next decade. Canada's steel, aluminium and auto industries have been hit hard by US tariffs on those sectors imposed by Trump.

Trade talks between Canada and the US remain paused, though a formal review of a long-standing free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico is now underway and is scheduled to be completed later this year.