CANADIAN GOVERNMENT INCREASINGLY FOCUSED ON CHINA

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. -------------- Trade Statistics -------------- ¶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