Canadian FM expects closer ties with China

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said here Tuesday that he expected stronger Canada-China ties through commerce, education and immigration cooperation between the two countries.

Baird made the remarks during a roundtable meeting with 12 representatives from local Chinese communities who gave their advice on improving bilateral relations between Canada and China.

Describing the one-hour roundtable meeting as one of the most productive he had ever attended, the minister said they had discussed a series of ideas on how to improve political, economic, and cultural ties between Canada and China.

"There are a number of suggestions on how we can do a better job with the Canadian visas, Chinese investments and the Chinese enterprises," the Canadian foreign minister said.

Challenges and opportunities in the tourism sector, Canada's labor shortage and airline access from China were also among the topics, he said.

Baird took office in May last year and made his first official visit to China two months later.

He said Canada had placed a much greater emphasis on its relations with China over the past years, and relations between the two countries had progressed a lot since then.

Baird said that in the last two or three years, they had witnessed great efforts. "We had a much better relationship on a variety of issues," the foreign minister said, citing as examples a tourism agreement which makes Canada a destination for Chinese tourists, and a nuclear cooperation pact which could boost the economic growth in western Canada through exports of uranium there, while helping Canada fight against global warming.

Albert Tseng, a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Inbound Tourism Association, has been involved in the tourism business since 1996. He said he had raised questions about how to reduce tourists' cost by lowering taxes when traveling to Canada.

"Compared to the tourist costs in the U.S. and Europe, our costs are pretty high. So how to balance the costs is what we need to do in two or three years," Tseng said. "However, this is troublesome as problems regarding taxes are hard to tackle."

Tseng said suggestions regarding this problem would be submitted to the higher level of government.

James Hsieh was among the 12 representatives at the roundtable meeting. He called the meeting "a very positive move."

"It gave me the impression that the Foreign Ministry of the (Canadian) Federal Government has a deep understanding of China's status quo and they also care a lot about the details. That made me feel that the interactions between China and Canada in the future would be quite positive and the bilateral ties would be improving constantly," he said.