Most Canadians support pivot away from China trade, poll shows

Name: China’s Xi rebukes Trudeau at G20, chides Canadian leader for ‘leaking’ meeting details
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The shift in public opinion has been shaped by China’s willingness to drop an ‘anvil’ on Canadian trade whenever it wants to make a point, expert said

Just 5 per cent of respondents said they want to see trade increase. Canada recently labelled China an ‘increasingly disruptive global power’

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The poll found that 61 per cent of respondents wanted Canada to reduce trade with China, compared to 45 per cent in December 2020. Photo: Reuters

Bloomberg

Published: 11:05am, 7 Dec 2022Updated: 11:06am, 7 Dec 2022

Canadian public opinion has turned against trade with China as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government promises to pivot toward democratic allies in Asia.

Though data released on Tuesday show exports to China just reached a record monthly high of C$3.3 billion (US$2.4 billion), 61 per cent of respondents in a Nanos Research Group survey for Bloomberg News said Canada should reduce its trade with the Asian powerhouse. That’s a 16-point increase compared with December 2020, when the number was 45 per cent.

The poll found 24 per cent of Canadians believe trade with China should stay at the current level, and just 5 per cent want to see an increase. Those numbers are relatively steady across gender, age and geography.

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China’s Xi rebukes Trudeau at G20, chides Canadian leader for ‘leaking’ meeting details

“Canadians have now woken up to the fact that China is not a reliable trading partner,” said Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a China specialist at the University of Ottawa and a former senior public servant.

Describing the shift in sentiment as “really dramatic”, McCuaig-Johnston said public opinion has been shaped by China’s willingness to drop an “anvil” on Canadian trade products whenever it wants to make a political point.

During the stand-off over Canada’s arrest of a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive on a US extradition request, for example, Beijing found reasons to turn away shipments of canola, pork and other agricultural exports.

Trudeau’s government released a long-anticipated Indo-Pacific strategy last week, labelling China an “increasingly disruptive global power” and pledging to deepen its trade and military ties with other regional allies such as South Korea and Japan.