Canada-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Roadmap

Mechanism

The roadmap is a joint political statement issued at the conclusion of PM Carney's January 2026 visit to Beijing, establishing a "Strategic Partnership" framework for bilateral trade and investment. It is not a treaty or binding trade agreement: it contains no tariff schedule, quota, or enforceable obligation, and both governments retain full discretion over the measures (screening regimes, surtaxes, sanctions) that already govern the relationship.

Two operative elements:

• Investment welcome language, both directions. Canada signals openness to Chinese

investment in energy, agriculture and consumer products; China signals openness to Canadian investment in energy, new materials, aerospace, modern agriculture and advanced manufacturing. Neither side commits to relaxing existing screening (e.g., Canada's ICA net-benefit/national-security review of Chinese investment, or China's own foreign-investment regime).

• Institutional upgrade. The Joint Economic and Trade Commission — the standing bilateral

trade dialogue — is elevated to minister-level co-chairs with a commitment to meet annually, creating a recurring venue for de-escalation and dispute management.

Relationship to existing register entries

This roadmap is a liberalising-tone signal issued against a backdrop of two restrictive Canada-China instruments already in the register: the 2022-11-02 ISED forced-divestiture orders compelling Chinese state-linked investors out of Canadian critical-minerals juniors, and the 2024-10-01 100% EV / 25% steel-aluminum surtax order. The roadmap does not repeal, suspend or amend either — it names no product, tariff line, or screening mechanism to be rolled back. It is filed as a distinct, later instrument in the same bilateral relationship, not an amendment to either predecessor, because it changes neither's legal force.

Open questions

• Whether the minister-level Joint Economic and Trade Commission meetings (first sitting not

yet scheduled as of filing) produce any concrete follow-on instrument — a revised EV surtax schedule, an ICA guidance update, or a critical-minerals MOU — that would responds_to this roadmap.

• Whether "energy" cooperation extends to uranium or LNG specifically; the primary text does

not name either commodity.

• Whether the roadmap's agricultural-dispute language has any bearing on China's existing

anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola/canola oil and peas (separately filed elsewhere in the register).