{"id":80815,"date":"2016-09-06T04:22:43","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T08:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=80815"},"modified":"2016-09-06T04:23:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T08:23:43","slug":"trudeau-says-protectionist-views-u-s-europe-unlikely-creep-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/06\/trudeau-says-protectionist-views-u-s-europe-unlikely-creep-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau says protectionist views in U.S., Europe unlikely to creep into Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Prime<\/a>
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Twitter photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HANGZHOU, China \u2013 Justin Trudeau spent days urging world leaders to fight back against rising anti-trade sentiments, but he says there\u2019s little risk that protectionist forces seen in the United States and Europe will spill over into Canada.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, who made the remarks Monday at the end of the Group of 20 summit in China, said he believes Canadians in every demographic group broadly support positive engagement with the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be very careful and hesitant to apply situations that might be described in other countries to Canadians because we\u2019ve seen Canadians are \u2013 and all demographic groups combined \u2013 generally open and positive and optimistic about the future,\u201d Trudeau told a news conference in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.<\/p>\n

The Canadian delegation at the G20 wove the theme of talking up trade into all their discussions with G20 peers, Trudeau said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland said growing anti-trade movements had complicated free trade talks with Europe and on softwood lumber with the U.S.<\/p>\n

In the summit\u2019s final communique, G20 leaders agreed to \u201creject protectionism\u201d and promote global trade and investment.<\/p>\n

Trudeau, attending his second G20 since taking office last year, was also encouraged that superpowers China and the U.S. both announced they would formally join the ambitious Paris agreement on climate change.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201cclear and positive\u201d consensus around the table that ratification of the Paris accord needs to happen soon, a goal outlined in the summit\u2019s closing communique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe significant momentum generated by both China and the United States ratifying is an encouragement to all countries around the G20 table, and indeed around the world, to move forward with ratification as quickly as possible,\u201d said Trudeau, who has been engaged in ongoing talks with the provinces to ratify.<\/p>\n

Canada, however, isn\u2019t quite ready to ratify the accord just yet and a country-wide climate plan remains a work in progress. Still, Trudeau, who has been negotiating with the provinces, insisted that Ottawa intends to ratify in the coming months.<\/p>\n

John Kirton, director of the G8 Research Group at University of Toronto, was expecting other G20 countries to quickly follow China and the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne would have expected when the two most-powerful polluters on the planet jointly agreed that they would ratify, or the legal equivalent, the Paris accord that others would have stepped up and said, \u2018Me too,\u2019\u201d said Kirton, who was at the summit site.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut stunning silence from Japan, from Germany and even Canada… Yes, consultation, co-operation back home a good thing, but how long can you wait?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trudeau said he had discussions on many different subjects with just about every leader, including U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t part of a meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine held by Obama, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, even though Canada has committed troops to the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually see there\u2019s a tremendous, positive engagement by Canada in secruity in Eastern Europe and our allies genuinely appreciate that,\u201d he said when asked why he didn\u2019t participate. He did not explain why he wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

Trudeau also held slightly more formal sit-downs on the sidelines of the summit with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the European Union, the OECD and Singapore. His only bilateral meeting was with Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno, who also serves as chair of the African Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there are a number of formal bilaterals, but the conversations that go on in the margins are equally important on wide range of issues,\u201d he said, when asked why he didn\u2019t hold more bilateral meetings.<\/p>\n

Trudeau is nearing the end of his eight-day trip to China, during which he also held bilateral talks focused mainly on trade and investment with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.<\/p>\n

Trudeau reiterated during the news conference his government\u2019s goal to deepen ties with China. He was asked if Chinese leaders raised their long-held concerns over Canada’s restrictions on investment by foreign, state-owned enterprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat specific issue wasn\u2019t brought up by the Chinese in any of my meetings,\u201d said Trudeau, who appeared open to discussing the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re always happy to listen to questions and concerns that the Chinese may have and we\u2019re always looking to create opportunities for Canadians and Canadian businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Trudeau flew to Hong Kong. He will hold meetings with business leaders there on Tuesday and participate in wreath-laying ceremony at the city\u2019s Sai Wan War Cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HANGZHOU, China \u2013 Justin Trudeau spent days urging world leaders to fight back against rising anti-trade sentiments, but he says …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":80816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[3070,11058,9745],"class_list":["post-80815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-pm-trudeau","tag-trudeau","mauthors-andy-blatchford","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}