Canadian-Asian Affairs

There were two stories about China in today's Globe. Both were in the business section. The first is a story from the Bloomberg news service reporting on the upcoming sale of China Coal shares on the Shanghai stock exchange. Reports on both the Chinese stock markets and major companies, especially government owned ones or ones formerly controlled by the military, are commonplace in contemporary Canadian China coverage.

The second story is interesting in that it largely contradicts one of yesterday's stories. Whereas Marcus Gee suggested China need not worry about the present economic downturn, Joe McDonald argues today that China needs to brace for a manufacturing slowdown resulting from the global economic situation. In a position almost opposite to yesterday's the Globe now characterizes China as economically dependent upon the global community.

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CAE has announced the establishment of their new Southeast Asian flight training centre in Kuala Lumpur. Increases in aircraft purchases by Asian airlines offers one of CAE's best growth opportunities in the foreseeable future.

Link: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/293948

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty called today for Asian currencies (specifically the Chinese Yuan) to re-value vis a vis the U.S. dollar. He argues that the loonie has taken an undue share of the change in value.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aqnihH._q47M&refer=canada

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Canada today announced economic sanctions against Burma otherwise known as Myanmar. The sanctions will have little effect on the stability of the government, but act rather to indicate official Canadian disapproval of the actions of the ruling Burmese regime. If Canada could work on convincing other Asean countries and China to enforce sanctions they may well have some effect.

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aaO7aFAOfBps&refer=canada

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Maxime Burnier met with the Korean foreign minister recently. The two confirmed the two countries' commitment to establishing a free trade agreement. The issue of beef exports to Korea is still problematic. Also expect the CAW to voice opposition to cheaper Korean imports.

http://www.kois.go.kr/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20071107023

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The growth in Canadian exports to China has outpaced the growth of imports from China this year. This marginally narrows the very large trade gap between the two countries. If efforts to revalue the Yuan are successful, expect exports to continue.

Link: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=edcff1ba-ccc7-48ef-a322-e4b2d940d6ea&k=27119

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Vincor, a major Canadian ice wine distributor, has signed a deal to distribute a significant amount of wine to the Chinese market. Sweet wines are popular in China which has become the world's second largest ice wine market.

Link: http://www.wines-info.com/Newshtml/200708/1892007082410492071.html

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Bombardier has announced a deal with China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) to cooperate on product development. AVIC has known plans to become a major player in the international aerospace industry. Bombardier as the third larges manufacturer of civilian aircraft can be an important strategic partner in achieving those plans.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/06/19/afx3838046.html

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CN has signed a deal with Chinese transportation company COSCO to ship containers via the new facility currently under construction in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The new facility has long been touted as an important part of Canada's increasing Pacific orientation. Officials claim it offers the fastest, most cost effective route for goods travelling from Asia to the North American interior.

Link: http://washington.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/05/14/daily1.html

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China National Petroleum Corporation has announced a deal to purchase EnCana's operations in Chad for just over $200 million.

Link: http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=mergersNews&storyID=2007-01-12T231350Z_01_N12323773_RTRIDST_0_ENCANA-CNPC-UPDATE-1.XML

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With China’s rise from backwards developing economy to the new workshop of the world, the Chinese economy’s demand for energy has risen to the point where many are concerned that Chinese energy demand may have serious consequences on the international stage. Increasing international activity by China to secure oil reserves and their transport to China presents both opportunities and challenges to the world at large; opportunities in that it offers a chance to further integrate China into a globalized market; challenges in that energy is a sensitive security issue, and China’s energy sector is still highly influenced by domestic politics.

China’s energy requirements can be utilized by a country such as Canada to leverage economic and diplomatic influence with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As a strong player in nuclear technology, uranium mining, and petroleum products Canada is well positioned to play an increasingly large role in East Asian relations. By further diversifying petroleum exports, offering to supply Beijing with much-needed uranium, and improving promotion of CANDU reactors in China the Canadian government could significantly strengthen its position in regards to the Canada-China relationship.

Continue reading "Chinese Energy Demand and Canada" »

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Research in Motion expects Asia to become its largest market. While RIM has been doing business in China by supplying Blackberry email service through a variety of mobile providers, it has yet to start selling Blackberry handsets in the Chinese market. RIM execs claim that once Blackberry sales in China take off, Asia will quickly become the company's largest market.

Link: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/07/business/rim.php

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The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada premiered the Beta version of their new database today. It is a searchable database (by country of origin and industry) listing various Asian companies doing business in Canada. I've played around a bit, and it is interesting but not quite perfect yet. For instance searching by 'China' and 'Energy' gives Husky Energy in the results, while searching by 'China' and 'Oil and Gas' provides no results. That said, it is as mentioned a Beta version. Hopefully the kinks will be worked out, because this looks like it could be a really useful tool.

Link: http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/asiancompany/index.cfm

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Due to labour shortages and high costs of doing business in Alberta, Syneco - which is 40% owned by Sinopec - has declared it will build major parts for its oilsands extraction in Asia. The parts will then be shipped via the Bering strait to the MacKenzie river.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=455a9ec0-98f4-4d1f-a2f7-88d723c09bc6&k=71835

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In the recent Economic Plan presented to parliament the Conservatives have indicated that they may at times consider blocking investment by foreign owned corporations. It is generally understood to refer to investment in strategic sectors, especially the energy sector. One suspects that this is generally aimed at China. There was talk of Husky oil being bought by one of the Chinese Petrochemical firms a few years ago. The rumours made many nervous and prompted calls for control of state-controlled FDI.

This really is much ado about nothing. As of now the Chinese have very little investment in the Canadian energy sector. It would be better to encourage investment, and thereby ties to the Chinese, than mutter veiled threats about the ultimate goals of their partial state-owned corporations.

Link:

Continue reading "Potential Restrictions on Foreign State-Owned Corporate Investment" »

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China has indicated that it is interested in importing Canadian uranium for use in its nuclear power generators. It has also suggested that it may consider purchasing more CANDU reactors for its anticipated nuclear power expansion project. However China has already snubbed Canada once on CANDU after the Canadian government hesitated at transferring technology to them. Another issue is that Canada has very strong controls over uranium export and as of now will not export large amounts to China. The usefulness of this policy is highly questionable. China already has a complete nuclear arsenal. By refusing to sell them uranium Canada is doing itself no favours. Australia certainly appreciates Canada's stance. They recently signed a lucrative deal with China to provide massive amounts of Uranium for China's growing nuclear power generation.

The IAEA and nuclear non-proliferation treaty have processes and institutions in place to control uranium. Canada should sell uranium to China with the simple caveat that if breeches in proper handling conduct occur the supply will cease.

Link: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11-15T113725Z_01_PEK88560_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-ENERGY-CHINA-CANADA-COL.XML

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David Emerson has indicated from the APEC summit in Vietnam that Canada will resume free trade talks with Singapore. The hope is that a deal will be reached by 2007. The expectation is that it will give Canada more penetration into the ASEAN market. Eventually ASEAN may agree to hold group negotiations for trade deals, which Canada would in all likelihood be highly interested in pursuing.

Link: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/15/business/AS_FIN_APEC_Canada_Singapore_FTA.php

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The APEC summit is gearing up in Vietnam. The talk in Canada is about the Conservative bungling of the China relationship and possible regional free trade deals. It's a shame about the Canada-China situation. Hu Jintao is really snubbling Harper by making him wait so long, which indicates he is not very pleased with Stephen. The free trade deals are still only in rudimentary talking stages so they haven't caught much attention here in Canada.

The trade talks at APEC are considered by some as a substitute to the stalled Doha negotiations. APEC accounts for 47% of world trade and thus is an important bloc.

Also keep an eye on security talks during the summit. Energy security, nuclear waste managment systems, and non-proliferation endeavours are all likely to get some coverage.

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Harper has requested a private meeting with Hu Jintao at next week's APEC meeting. However the Chinese have yet to get back to him as to whether or not the meeting will go forward. The prevailing interpretation is that this is a not so subtle diplomatic signal that China is less than pleased with the Conservative's handling of the Canada-China relationship.

It' surprising how much coverage this situation is getting in the media. It seems every week there is another story or two about how the relationship is being bungled.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061110.wxchinaharper10/BNStory/National/home

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Trade Minister David Emerson has indicated that Canada is considering joining the United States and Japan in pursuing tougher intellectual property law enforcement in China. China will not seriously enforce IP laws until it is in the interest of the Chinese state to do so. If concerned countries utilize the WTO to punish lax IP rights enforcement it may have some impact. But the natural increase in Chinese innovation and patent/copyright ownership is the only thing that will really lead to compliance by the Chinese authorities.

Link: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2006-11-02T233255Z_01_N02247520_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-TRADE-CANADA-CHINA-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=EntNewsIndustry_C2_industryNews-4

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Embassy had a good article today about the Canada-China business relationship. It springs from Harper's recent announcement that the Conservatives plan on honouring the Liberal promise to invest hundreds of millions in a port strategy to capitalize on increased Asian trade.

The article goes on to address a number of issues including changing trade balances with the US, energy prices, and Chinese political power. It's a good read if you've got the time.

Link: http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/october/18/china/

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Continuing his West coast tour, Prime Minister Harper gave a speech featuring the plans for improvement of West coast port infrastructure. Vancouver is getting an upgrade to handle increased Asian trade. Meanwhile Highways and Railways are slated for expansion. The article claims container receiving is expected to increase from a current 2 million containers/year to 7 million by 2020.

Link: http://english.people.com.cn/200610/12/eng20061012_311038.html

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Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture, is making an official visit to China. His trip will be the first ministerial visit to China since the Harper government took office.

Relations have been getting icer as time goes by. The Conservatives' rather ham-fisted treatment hasn't been making relationship building any easier.

Link: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=615588

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Talks with South Korea on ways to cut tariffs and work towards a free trade agreement are continuing. The talks are naturally controversial amongst some Canadian industries as South Korea enjoys a trade surplus with Canada. Many believe Canada has less to gain than it has to lose from the agreement.

Link: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/159424.html

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Embassy, a paper aimed at diplomats and foreign policy buffs, has an article claiming that Canada's international branding efforts are lagging behind other countries, and we are thus not attaining the level of international enrolement in educational institutes that we could be.

The article goes on to extrapolate on Canada's lack of cohesiveness in its branding. Public Diplomacy as DFA is referring to any sort of culture or image campaigns is important. The article is an interesting read if you get the chance.

Link: http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/october/4/branding/

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The possibility of a ban in the United States on horse slaughter for human consumption has led Japan to express its non-chalance. Japan, a major market for horse meat, points out that a very small amount of it's annual consumption of horse meat is of American meat. Furthermore, Canadian exports are expected to remain unchanged, or even increase to compensate for the lack of slaughter facilities in the USA.

Link: http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/ff8080810d8f7410010da8a1ef51007b.do.html

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In an acknowledgment that the Chinese-Canadian relationship is not all it could be, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has issued a report urging the federal government to consider that the diplomatic relationship between the two countries can have a significant impact on their economic relationship.

It is generally considered that Harper's Conservatives more hardline approach towards the China question has been less than ideal for the state of Canadian-Chinese business relations. The moderately more ideological Conservatives have stood up to what they perceive to be an anti-democratic dictatorship on a number of fronts. Previously the more pragmatic Liberal governments were of the mind that currying favour with the Chinese would ultimately bring more influence while also keeping the economic relations in good standing.

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/business/060912/b091256.html

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Increasing development in Asia is being fingered as the source of a significant proportion of pollution in North America. I've linked to a CP article specifically addressing atmospheric mercury pollution. It is estimated that about 20% of Canada's atmospheric mercury is coming from Asian countries. China alone accounts for about one quarter of the world's mercury output.

The issue of pollution from developing countries is a touchy one. The West pushes for improved pollution controls in the developing countries. The developing countries respond by pointing to the West's lacklustre pollution control record in the past, and claim that it is unfair to ask them to struggle under more stringent and difficult restrictions.

Link: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2006/09/08/1813767-sun.html

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The Federal Liberal party is accusing the Conservatives of doing too little to maintain and improve relations with the PRC. Specifically they are lambasting the lack of movement towards attaining approved destination status (ADS). The Liberals began negotiations with the PRC in 1999 in hopes of achieving ADS which would presumably lead to an increase in tourists from China. While Canada was one of the first countries to pursue ADS we haven't been able to move the negotiations to an agreement. Many other countries have achieved ADS and noted modest but appreciable increases in tourism from the mainland.

The Liberals have a point when they argue that the Conservatives have apparently ignored China since coming to power. There have been no state visits of importance, and an tangible souring of relations over things like the Lai Changxing case, the Huseyincan Celil case, and Tibetan policy. It appears the two parties have differing approaches to the China question.

The Liberals hoped engaging China and reaping all the benefits that engagement had to offer was the best course of action. They argued that Canada could capitalize on that engagment and use it to influence the powers that be in China. The Conservatives seem rather more hesitant to deal like buddies with what many believe to be a corrupt and in ways morally reprehensible regime.

I suspect, regardless of how the Canadian authorities engage with the Chinese, any influence we gain will be minor indeed. The decision as to how best to deal with China is dependent upon what kind of benefits Canada wishes to extract from the relationship, and what degree of hesitation our opinion of the CCP demands.

Link: http://www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?type=news&id=11832

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Sleeman, Canada's third largest brewer, has announced a deal that will see Sapporo breweries of Japan take over the company. Sleeman had been shopping for a buyer for a few months. Thirsty beer drinkers likely won't see any changes, excepting maybe eventual new export markets for Sleeman products.

Link: http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-08-11T231621Z_01_N11148538_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-FOOD-SLEEMAN-SAPPORO-COL.XML

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A hockey team of young Canadians of Japanese descent is headed to Japan to face off against Japanese hockey teams. The event is billed as a cultural exchange and a way for the Canadian youths to get in touch with their Japanese roots.

LInk: http://www.richmondreview.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=45&cat=40&id=694657&more=

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Rogers is sponsoring a Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place in Toronto. While the lanterns sound impressive, and I'm sure it's quite a show the tickets are a bit on the steep side. If you want your fix of "Chinese culture" you've got to shell out anywhere from $20 to $49. Unless you're under four, in which case you can enjoy massive CN tower shaped lanterns for absolutely nothing.

Link: http://chineselanternfestival.ca/e/home.html

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There have been rumours of a brewing free trade deal with Malaysia for some time now. Currently the DFA is in negotiations with a number of countries including South Korea and Singapore. This report suggests that once there are more resources available to begin negotiations with Malaysia, the two countries will start working out details of a free trade deal.

One can expect bilateral free trade agreements between Canada and smaller Asian countries to steadily increase over the next decade. The trend will be further strengthened if the Asian Free Trade Area (AFTA) works towards unifying member states' trade relations with non-member countries. The current agreement works similarly to NAFTA wherein free trade is enjoyed within the region but each member country independently negotiates trade relations with non-members.

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The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada has an interesting feature article this week regarding Halifax's potential as a port of entry for Asian goods. Halifax is one of the few options left as the West coast doesn't seem to be able to keep up with demand for freight handling. Furthermore, Halifax is well located to handle an expected increase in Indian trade via the Suez Canal.

In related news, according to The Globe and Mail CNR and CPR are both enjoying handsome profits, largely due to increasing trade with Asia. The railways both bring in the manufactured goods that reach Canadian ports, as well as move resource based commodities to port for shipment overseas.

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The Taiwan World Trade Center opened a new office in Vancouver to help facilitate trade with the Canadian market. Vancouver's is TWTC's 44th overseas office.

Canada and Taiwan aren't huge bilateral trading partners, but between them do a good deal of business. Furthermore Vancouver is home to a significant overseas Chinese and Taiwanese population which TWTC hopes will make increasing business ties all the easier.

Link: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=85997&GRP=B

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A group of mainly Canadian investors has announced plans for a joint venture with the Chinese rail monopoly to build and run a super-luxury train service from Beijing to Tibet. They will of course utilize the new and highly touted 'highest railway in the world.'

The group claims their trains will be the most luxurious in the world and tickets will cost upwards of $1000 per day. It sounds very fancy indeed.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060710.RTIBET10/TPStory/Business

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In an attempt to secure more oil supplies South Korea's Korean National Oil Corporation has purchased an oil sands mine near Coldlake Alberta. The mine is believed to hold approximately 250 million barrels of extractable oil reserves. Don't expect news like this to be rare over the next few years. Securing oil interests in the relatively close, and reassuringly stable Canadian market is attractive to most Asian countries, especially those which have a dearth of domestic resources.

Link: http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/137818.html

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Research in Motion announced on June 22nd that they have agreed to enter into their largest international partnership yet by pairing up with Japan's NTT DoCoMo to offer Blackberry service in Japan. Research in Motion has announced new distribution deals in China, Japan, and Taiwan over the past few months. The article linked to below mentions that initially there may not be Japanese text input ability. That to me sounds like it could be a deal breaker for Japanese businesses and consumers. I imagine RIM will do their best to sort out the input issue before the devices are brought to market.

Link: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7003996232

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Taiwan Mobile has announced they will start providing Research in Motion's Blackberry email service, and handsets as of next month. Previously RIM had encountered difficulty with Chinese text input and thus had yet to crack the Taiwanese market. They seem to have sorted out their difficulties and this year have entered the two largest Chinese speaking markets. Luckily for RIM their handsets won't have to compete with state telecom developed "Redberry" knock-offs in Taiwan.

It remains to be seen whether or not the units will prove popular in Taiwan's exceptionally competitive, and 'cool' driven handset market.

Link: http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20060623A9053.html

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Toon Boom a Canadian based developer of animation software has announced it will cooperate with Singapore's Institute of Technical Education to found a new "Centre of Excellence." The centre will focus on providing world-class animation training to students in Southeast Asia.

Link: http://www.toonboom.com/pdf/pressReleases/2006/TBpress_0606_Singapore_ITE.pdf

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Air Canada announced today that it will increase service to China by offering direct Toronto to Shanghai flights and increasing Toronto to Beijing service. It is interesting to note in the release regarding the new routes that apart from the domestic ones the new direct services are between Canada-US and Canada-China points. This speaks to the growing Pacific orientation of the Canadian economy.

Link: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2006/06/17/1637442-sun.html

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Calgary's Zi Corporation is to announce it's newly developed Chinese text input software for cellphones at this week's ComminicAsia show in Singapore. It sounds like an interesting product. Its success will be highly dependent on how effective the predictive text and phrase output is. While entering Latin alphabet based text into cellphone keyboards is exasperating, as one can imagine Chinese with its thousands of characters is even more of a challenge.

Link: http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060614-112628-6693r

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Husky Energy, one of Canada's largest energy companies, has announced a significant natural gas discovery while conducting test drilling in the South China Sea.

Hong Kong billionaire (and sometimes Vancouver resident) Li Ka Shing's Hutchison Whampoa is majority stakeholder in Husky. There have been rumours floating around for years about a possible take over by a Chinese energy company such as CNOOC or CNPC, but as of yet nothing has come of them. Finds such as this one with energy resources close at home to the Chinese market will likely fuel more speculation of such takeover possibilities.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/06/15/afx2816640.html

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Bob Lee, an elder in Western Canada's highly sucessful Chinese business community, has begun working with Canadian National Rail in an attempt to increase its business ties with Asia. CN hopes to be able to direct more of the flood of Chinese goods shipped across the Pacific to ports where it has operations, and then use it's transport and logistics expertise to move the goods to the US or other parts of Canada. Lee offers decades worth of guanxi (關係） to help CN reach its goals.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060614.RBOBLEE14/TPStory/Business

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The University of Waterloo has reached an agreement with China's Ministry of Education to establish Canada's second Confucius Institute. The Institutes are a Chinese initiative to increase the number of Chinese speakers globally, while also promoting Chinese culture and history.

Canada's other Confucius Institute is located at The British Columbia Institute of Technology. I imagine Waterloo's worldwide reputation for its excellent computer science program likely had an impact on the decision about where to locate the Institute.

Link: http://www.therecord.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=record/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150149012521&call_pageid=1024322085509&col=1024322199564

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Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has been awarded a large contract to re-tube the Wosong 1 Candu 6 nuclear reactor in South Korea by Korean Hydro and Nuclear Power Company Ltd. The contract is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and will substantially increase the expected working life of the Wosong 1 reactor.

Nuclear energy is a $5 billion/year industry in Canada. That number could significantly increase if the current push for new reactors in Canada and internationally is successful.

Link: http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/287045773689488.php

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