XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: {~_~}@nyet.ca   
      
   You wouldn't know it from the multi-millions of our tax dollars Harper &   
   his Cons are spending on trying to push the Enbridge pipeline through   
   BC.  I guess they feel that's what Canadians want their tax dollars   
   spent on - unlike for healthcare, education, or green industry incentives.   
      
   Can't trust the Chinese because of their human rights issues, their   
   penchant for suing other countries over trade issues, and cyber   
   espionage as a whole.   
   But Harper DOES trust them to ply thousands of tankers through our   
   pristine west coast waters, laden with bitumen.   
      
   Distrust goes out the window when money comes in the door, I guess.   
   ____________________________________   
   CBC News Posted: Apr 21, 2014   
      
   China-Canada trade ties stall over cabinet divisions   
   Critics fear Canada getting cold feet over risk posed by cyber espionage   
      
      
   CBC News has learned a split around the cabinet table has stalled what   
   was once a warming trade relationship with China.   
      
   The dispute has pitted some of the most powerful members of cabinet   
   against each other on an issue that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has   
   pegged as critical to the future of Canada's prosperity.   
      
   Concerns from some cabinet ministers, including Jason Kenney and James   
   Moore, began around the takeover of Alberta energy company Nexen by   
   China National Offshore Oil Company.   
      
   But sources tell CBC the prime minister's concerns today focus on the   
   threats of cyber espionage and cyber security.   
      
   This cooling of the relationship is in stark contrast to just two years ago.   
      
   Documents obtained by CBC under Access to Information show the prime   
   minister had a different message during his trip to China.   
      
   One briefing note for the meeting with the former Chinese President Hu   
   Jintao states Canada's "Desired Outcomes" for the trip as concluding the   
   Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and a "subsequent   
   launch of exploratory trade discussions."   
      
   Those trade talks were about to be announced that summer.   
      
   David Mulroney, Canada's ambassador to China in 2012, says there were   
   lots of possibilities in the spring.   
      
   But then, he adds, "things got complicated very quickly."   
      
   The government was dealing with growing concern over the CNOOC takeover   
   of Nexen.   
      
   By the end of that year, the Harper government would say yes to that   
   deal, but place restrictions on any further takeovers by state-owned   
   enterprises.   
      
   But concerns about China continued to rise.   
      
   The Asia Pacific Foundation does a poll every year about Canadians'   
   views about trade with China.   
      
   The foundation's president, Yuen Pau Woo, said the number of Canadians   
   who were cool towards China was at its highest level in five years last   
   year.   
      
   And that's why, he believes, the foreign investment treaty signed in   
   2012 has not yet been ratified by cabinet, nor have those exploratory   
   talks ever happened.   
      
   "Our leaders seem to run scared, if you will, when there is public   
   apprehension, when there's dissent from within caucus, when the   
   opposition starts making trouble, and all of this does not provide for   
   the stability and long-term vision that we need in order for bilateral   
   relations to strengthen," Woo told CBC.   
   Risk and opportunity   
      
   Sources tell CBC that dissent reaches into cabinet room, with Jason   
   Kenney and James Moore on one side, while John Baird and Joe Oliver   
   would like closer trade ties with China.   
      
   And while the prime minister is somewhere in the middle, Mulroney admits   
   there are risks to forming closer ties to China.   
      
   "China is to a certain extent a security threat when it comes to things   
   like cyber espionage, or even traditional espionage," Mulroney said.   
      
   But, he added, "We need to look at both sides — the risk and the   
   opportunity — and decide on an intelligent approach that maximizes the   
   upside and minimizes and mitigates the very real downside."   
      
   Trade Minister Ed Fast will travel to China next month.   
      
   Fast wouldn't "speak for caucus" nor would he comment on what goes on in   
   cabinet — but, he insisted the "government is committed to growing our   
   relationship with China, but first steps first. We wanted to make sure   
   that we bring the foreign investment promotion and protection agreement   
   into force."   
      
   That investment agreement is being challenged in a federal court in B.C.   
   by the Hupacasath First Nation. The government recently won that court   
   battle, but the small First Nations community is appealing.   
      
   A pulp mill in Thurso, Que. is wondering if the cooling relationship is   
   to blame for a 13 per cent duty China has just imposed on dissolvable   
   pulp, which is used to make rayon.   
      
   Mill president Yvon Pelletier said that duty will cost his company $20   
   million a year in revenue.   
      
   Not all countries that export dissolvable pulp to China were hit with   
   the duty, Pelletier pointed out.   
      
   "I've been dealing with China for 13 years. It's a relationship-based   
   country. So, most definitely, if there was a much improved relationship   
   at all levels of the government, I would think that maybe China wouldn't   
   have proceeded with (duty against) Canada," he said.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)