BEIJING (Reuters) -China will continue to grow bilateral relations with Canada on the basis of mutual respect and equality, the foreign ministry said after Mark Carney won the race to lead Canada’s ruling party and become the next prime minister.
Carney, a two-time central banker who has never held elected office, won the leadership race with 86% of the votes cast on Sunday and will succeed Justin Trudeau who resigned in January.
Speaking at a regular press conference on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning congratulated Carney on his win, while urging Canada to work with China to promote improvement and development of relations.
“We expect Canada to adhere to an objective and rational understanding of China and pursue a positive and pragmatic policy towards China,” Mao said on Monday.
Carney’s victory came just a day after Beijing announced tariffs on over $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products on Saturday, in retaliation against levies Ottawa introduced in October.
The levies, scheduled to take effect on March 20, match the 100% and 25% import duties Canada imposed on China-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminium products.
Mao defended China’s countermeasures as entirely “legitimate and reasonable,” telling the Canadian side to correct its “wrong practices” to provide a fair, non-discriminatory and predictable environment for the two countries’ enterprises.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Bernadette Baum)
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