BEIJING (AP) \u2014 Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.<\/p>\n
Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to about 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its total tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a historic and productive two days,\u201d Carney said, speaking outside against the backdrop of a traditional pavilion and a frozen pond at a Beijing park. \u201cWe have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we\u2019re aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier Friday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony<\/a>.<\/p>\n Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting<\/a> in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China\u2013Canada relations toward improvement,\u201d China’s top leader said.<\/p>\n Carney looks to improve global governance<\/p>\n Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years<\/a>, told Xi that better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as \u201cunder great strain.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, he said at the news conference that the system may give way at least in part to country-to-country or regional agreements rather than the global ones that have underpinned economic growth in the post-World War II era.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question is: What gets built in that place? How much of a patchwork is it?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The new reality reflects in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies<\/a> in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called \u201ca time of global trade disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n A Canadian business owner in China called Carney’s visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.<\/p>\n \u201cThese three things we didn\u2019t have,\u201d said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. \u201cThe parties were not talking for years.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada had been aligned with US on tariffs<\/p>\n Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100%<\/a> on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n