In his recent exclusive interview with Reuters, H. E. Wang Di, Chinese Ambassador to Canada, talked about China-Canada practical cooperation as follows:

Reuters: After Prime Minister Carney signed the deal with China, we know that the relationship is now gaining momentum. When is the first shipment of electric vehicles (EVs) to arrive from China to Canada? At what level are they priced? Can you name the companies? 

Ambassador Wang Di: The entry of Chinese EVs into Canada is one of the important consensus reached by Prime Minister Carney with Chinese leaders during his visit to China. When we talk about Chinese EVs, we actually mean two things. One is the EVs produced in China, and the other is the EVs of Chinese brands. The first category, for example, Tesla, has been in Canada for a long time. When it comes to the second category, as far as I know, the Geely EVs will arrive in Canada next month. They will hold a ceremony in Montréal when the cars are delivered.

Apart from Geely, other Chinese brands, such as Chery, BYD and many others, are also very interested in the Canadian market. They are actively coordinating with the Canadian government agencies to go through all the procedures. I think it will take more time for these companies to enter Canada. I can feel during my engagement with the Canadian side that they also very much look forward to the entrance of Chinese brand EVs into Canada at an earlier date. Now we are at the end of June. Apart from the EVs from Tesla and Geely, I hope the genuinely Chinese brand EVs could complete the procedures by this autumn and enter the Canadian market at an early date.

Reuters: Under the economic and trade partnership agreement signed in January, Prime Minister Carney also spoke about this kind of joint ventures with Chinese companies so that they can come and invest in the supply chains. Minister Joly also visited some Chinese companies there. What is happening on that front? When can we expect some big and concrete announcement regarding that?

Ambassador Wang Di: Chinese companies have shown interest in investing here in Canada. The Canadian side has also expressed multiple times that they hope the Chinese EV companies could come to Canada to make investments. You mentioned that during her recent visit to China, Minister Joly had discussions with quite a few Chinese EV companies. The Chinese government supports Chinese EV automakers to make investment here in Canada. What the two governments should do is to create a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for companies on both sides to cooperate with each other. But when it comes to the way the cooperation should be conducted and the scale of the cooperation, I think it is up to the companies as the market entities to discuss how they cooperate.

While quite a few Chinese EV automakers have shown interest in investing in the Canadian market, they want to see their car trade go smoothly in the Canadian market at the first place. Then they will be able to build on that to assess how they can make investment here. At this current state, what we should be focusing on is to make sure that the EV trade can proceed smoothly on the basis of the consensus we had.  

Reuters: What are the hurdles in terms of the investment? Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he doesn’t want this kind of investment from Chinese automakers here. Are there any other hurdles faced by these companies in Canada as they want to come and invest?

Ambassador Wang Di: When it comes to investment cooperation between companies, governments have their responsibilities, and businesses also have their own things to do. The responsibility of the governments, as I said, is to create a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for corporate cooperation. Then, on the basis of the conditions of the market, companies will make their investment decisions. I cannot make decisions on behalf of the CEOs of these Chinese automakers.

Reuters: USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer has said that both Canada and Mexico have to tighten their rules of origin, and Canada should not become a backdoor for other countries to come inside. He specifically mentioned that it contains the subsidized autos coming from China. What’s China’s response to this?  

Ambassador Wang Di: Cooperation between China and Canada is only between China and Canada, while the cooperation between Canada and other countries is up to Canada and the other country. China always believes that the cooperation between any two countries should not affect or constrain the cooperation between one country and other countries.

Reuters: Ambassador, I want you to talk about why China is interested in Canada. It’s very easy to see why Canada is interested in China, since China is a huge market with over 1.4 billion people. Why is China interested in Canada? We are a very small country.  

Ambassador Wang Di: Talking about the relationship between China and Canada, I think I can share with you a lot of stories. First of all, there is a long-standing friendship between our two countries. Among the Chinese people, the image of Canada has been quite positive, because the Chinese people are deeply impressed by the selfless support rendered by Dr. Norman Bethune to the Chinese people. This is really important for China-Canada relationship. For the Chinese people, the story of the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune is quite unique; it doesn’t really happen to a lot of other countries. People-to-people friendship is an important foundation between any two countries.

Apart from this, our two economies are highly complementary. China has a huge market, and Canada has a lot of resources and a high-quality service sector. We have a lot of potential to be unleashed in our economic cooperation in the future. Another important thing is that both China and Canada support multilateralism and free trade.  

Reuters: I heard about Dr. Norman Bethune every time when I was in China. Can you tell me the main sectors that lead to this growth? They talked about an increased Canadian export to China by 50 percent by the end of this decade. Can you talk more about what specific industries or resources in Canada that could be useful to China?  

Ambassador Wang Di: As I said, our two economies have great complementarities. Currently, this is particularly true in energy and agriculture sectors. Let me share with you some statistics, which will help you to understand it better. For example, in the energy sector, Canada exported 15.5 million tons of heavy crude oil to China in 2025, a year-on-year growth of 168 percent. From January to May this year, the import of crude oil by China from Canada also increased by 14.4 percent year-on-year. Experts told me that in the future not far from now, every year China will be importing 22 million tons of crude oil from Canada. With this current amount of crude oil export, Canada has climbed to the 10th place in terms of China’s import source of crude oil around the world.  

In terms of the export of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Canada’s export to China has also increased from zero to a lot. From January to May this year, the import of LNG by China from Canada has reached nearly 2 million tons, a year-on-year growth of 1021 percent. Canada has already announced that by 2030, every year it will export 50 million tons of LNG to Asia, so that means a great potential in terms of its LNG export to China.

In terms of agricultural and aquatic products, Canada’s export volume to China reached around 5 billion USD in 2025. However, that number in 2023 is over 10 billion USD. That means the number has declined in 2025 because of the tariffs, but now with the tariffs either removed or eased, the import of agricultural and aquatic products by China from Canada will have a lot of potential for increase. Another number is that last year, China’s total global import volume of agricultural products reached 294 billion Canadian dollars, which means Canadian export only accounted for around 2 percent of China’s global import. This fully shows that in the future, we have broad space to further strengthen agricultural product trade.

The Canadian side said they want to increase export to China by 50 percent by 2030. Not long ago, during his visit to Canada, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that this number could reach 100%. I did some homework. If we want to increase the export by 100% by 2030, then what we need is a 14.87 percent growth year-on-year. What I want to share with you is that in the first 4 months this year, which is after Prime Minister Carney’s visit to China, Canada’s export to China has already increased by 27.5% year-on-year. I am confident that as we agree to move forward our economic and trade cooperation, continue to unleash the potential in our economies and continue to leverage our trade and economic complementarities, I think maybe we can go beyond the 100 percent growth target and even reach 200 percent. But the key is that we have to keep to the right direction, remove all disruptions or disturbance. As long as we keep to the right track, at the right pace and towards the right direction, I think there will be a lot of potential to increase our trade.    

Reuters: What are the disturbances or hurdles, irritants as what we call, that you said are still there between Canada and China?

Ambassador Wang Di: What China has stressed repeatedly is that when China and Canada advance practical cooperation, we should uphold the principles of mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences, adhering to strategic autonomy and pursuing win-win and mutual benefits. If we keep to this right direction, we will be able to advance our trade and economic cooperation smoothly. Any deviation will lead us to this or that kind of hurdles or disturbances.

Reuters: The agricultural suspensions on canola meal and peas, lobster, crab, they all expire by the end of 2026. Will China extend it and when could we actually know that China has agreed to extend it?

Ambassador Wang Di: The fact that China and Canada have reached joint preliminary arrangements to address each other’s trade concerns fully shows that as long as our two countries uphold the principle of mutual respect, equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit in addressing each other’s trade concerns properly, there is nothing that we cannot resolve. If we uphold those same principles, the existing arrangements that we have reached will continue to move forward. Because we see that these joint arrangements have already brought win-win results for both sides. There is no reason that we should not continue or adjust those joint arrangements.

Reuters: Is it right to say that if the conditions prevail, the way they are between Canada and China, then most of the agricultural products and aqua-products will get extension beyond 2026?

Ambassador Wang Di: As for the specific arrangements in the future, I think it’s up to the competent authorities of both sides to discuss through the existing channels. What I can share with you is that on these issues, the competent authorities on both sides have maintained friendly consultations.

Reuters: Canola oil still has 100% tariff and pork also has around 25% tariff. Should we expect some relief from China on that if the momentum continues between China and Canada？

Ambassador Wang Di: It was exactly because we upheld the principles and spirit of mutual respect, equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit that we were able to reach the previous joint arrangements. As long as we continue to uphold these principles and spirit, I think other issues, including the issues that you have mentioned, could also be resolved properly.

Reuters: Considering that Prime Minister Carney will be visiting and meeting President Xi during the APEC meetings. What are the two to three things that China wants Canada to achieve before Prime Minister Carney comes there？

Ambassador Wang Di: During Prime Minister Carney’s visit to China in January, leaders of both countries reached a lot of consensuses. The most important consensuses are that both sides are committed to forging a new Strategic Partnership, and reached the Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Roadmap and the joint preliminary arrangements for addressing each other’s trade concerns. In the past five months, many of the consensuses are being effectively implemented. The task for us at the working level is to accelerate our pace of implementation of these important consensuses. You mentioned three top things, but I think the list could be longer because we have reached so many consensuses. But I think in general, our main task is to forge a good new Strategic Partnership and to implement effectively the Roadmap and the joint preliminary arrangements so that when Prime Minister Carney visits China again in November during the APEC meetings, leaders of both sides will be able to advance our relationship from a new and higher starting point.

Reuters: When you spoke about the agri-exports from Canada, you said that Canada is just 2% of what China imports. How much do you think Canada can actually supply realistically so that you can achieve the 100 percent target?

Ambassador Wang Di: I think the specific numbers are up to how both sides cooperate on the ground, but I’m sure there is great potential in this regard, because China has a population of 1.4 billion, with a middle--income group of 400 million which is expected to double soon. So the Chinese market has a huge demand for high quality products, including agri-products. I believe as long as Canadian agricultural and aquatic products are competitive enough and have good quality, the Chinese market’s doors will be open for them. Two months ago, at the invitation of China, Canada participated as a Guest Country of Honour in China International Consumer Products Expo, and in November China will invite Canada again to participate as a Guest Country of Honour in China International Import Expo. So you can see that China has already shown a very positive attitude.

Reuters: Apart from agriculture and energy, is there any other sectors gaining importance or should be the third sector which can actually help in achieving the 100 percent target?

Ambassador Wang Di: Of course. For example, EV, new energies, manufacturing, and robots. We have great cooperation potential in many high-tech areas.