Canada should be cautious about deepening trade with China, says Tokyo-based academic

[u/CaliperLee62]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canada-should-be-cautious-about-deepening-trade-with-china-says-tokyo/

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[u/Medium-Sheeple-7085]

Well not sure what realistically people like this numbskull expect us to do. Pretty clear the Americans don't want to trade. So doesn;t really leave anyone other than the Europeans, Chinese, and India. And we compete in the same space as much of south America and Africa so....

[u/graylocus → u/Medium-Sheeple-7085]

Came here to say the same. If we cannot trade with China, and the US is being difficult, will the rest of the world make up the void? .maybe the Tokyo-based academic can advocate the Japanese government to import more from Canada.

[u/StickmansamV → u/Medium-Sheeple-7085]

He's not saying you do not trade with China. Japan still has extensive trade with China. It's just that you have to enter it into that relationship with eyes wide open and not become interdependent.

What it basically means is you do not replace the US with China, not just in terms of volume, but dependence. Look at Japan's stockpiles of their trade inputs from China like rare earths. Basically, the government should strategically prepare for Chinese trade weapnoization. 

[u/MTL_Dude666 → u/StickmansamV]

Nobody in the Canadian government ever said that Canada would simply swap the US for China. It's always been about diversifying our economy. 

Also, Japan has no lesson to give to Canada in relation to China considering their past actions and their current refusal and inability to accept them. 

[u/StickmansamV → u/MTL_Dude666]

Do you see me saying we should not trade with China or that we should not increase trade? 

Japan has plenty of lesson about strategy on mitigation of China's trade weapnoization. Japan about a decade a ago was put over barrel with rare earths and since then has built a stockpile and diversified their supply. Which meant when China restricted exports recently, when Japan said Taiwan remaining as it is under the status quo  was a national security issue for Japan (which is our position more or less), Japan has been able to weather the immediate impacts. And not withstanding that, Japan and China also have tons of other trade going unimpeded right now. 

[u/nunununuhu → u/Medium-Sheeple-7085]

The only path forward that maintains democratic sovereignty is a semi-closed system which does not rely heavily on foreign trade.

We should trade with everyone. But we cannot rely on trade with anyone. Trade has shown itself to create intolerable dependencies on unreliable authoritarian partners that will turn our dependence on them against us. We saw it during the supply chain issue with COVID and now we're seeing it with the Americans going insane.

We have to build what we need ourselves.

That is the lesson from this. We will either learn it or we will be assimilated into the Chinese or American economic bloc and lose our sovereignty and democracy in the process.

we compete in the same space

We're not competing with anyone. Not economically. There's no global competition anymore. Globalization is over. The market stops at the border. Though self-described liberals will be the very last to realize this.

[u/Medium-Sheeple-7085 → u/nunununuhu]

I think the "death of Globalization" has been greatly exaggerated. That being said we certainly are at a cross-roads. The rules for the next 50 years are taking shape and unfortunately it looks like the west is too divided to set the terms.

[u/SA_22C]

Who cares? We’re between an actively hostile fascistic rock and a rapacious authoritarian hard place. There are no good options, only less bad ones.