Podcast: We’re Going to China!

Transcript: We're Going to China!

Host
- Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jim Carr, will be visiting China from June fifth to the ninth, 2017.
- The primary focus of the trip is to expand trade between the two countries, to take our trade and investment relationship with China to the next level.
- In order to accomplish this, Minister Carr is bringing with him a delegation made up of provincial ministers, representatives from Indigenous organizations and Canadian energy, forestry and clean tech companies.
- This delegation will showcase the diversity of Canadian talent, innovation and expertise and will build ties with their Chinese counterparts to create more opportunities for trade and investment.
- Here to speak to the forestry portion of the trip is Glenn Mason, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada.

Glenn Mason
- Thanks, Joël. Listen, two-way trade between Canada and China has grown enormously to than more than 85 billion dollars, making China Canada’s second-largest trading partner.
- Clearly, Canada would like to continue to see its bilateral relationship with China grow, both in terms of trade but also broader collaboration.
- The Canadian Forest Service promotes market diversification for Canadian wood and wood products through our Expanding Markets Opportunities program, which has helped increase Canadian wood exports to China by close to 5,000 percent since 2001. I think that’s pretty amazing.
- What we’ve been doing in China involves supporting work conducted by Canadian forest products associations, including:
  - enabling and promoting multi-storey and tall wood buildings and the use of wood in public procurement, much as we do here in Canada
  - and secondly, providing education on Canadian wood frame technology to students, architects and builders.
- Minister Carr’s mission is complementing this important work by providing opportunities for Canadian forest companies to demonstrate new products and to build new communities, including an eco-district in Tianjin, where the Canadian government has partnered with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to establish a new wood technology centre.
- The mutual opportunities and untapped potential here in China are exciting, and I look forward to what lies ahead for our two countries.

Host
- Canada is a global leader in clean technology, and this trip will put our expertise on display. Here is Frank Des Rosiers, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Innovation and Energy Technology Sector at Natural Resources Canada.

Frank Des Rosiers
- So, we’re coming along to China with a significant clean tech delegation to go and address what is a remarkable opportunity in terms of global investment in China.
- Not only is clean tech an important opportunity domestically where we have some 55,000 people working in a business that account for 13 billion dollars of activity each and every year, but China is the fastest growing market in the world, and you want to be there to seize on those opportunities.
- Whether it’s in terms of power generation, air quality, water, there’s tremendous demands that are out there, and we’re fortunate to have very capable companies well supported by trade commissioner service, by EDC and others to go and seize on those business opportunities.

Host
- Our country’s economy is greatly influenced by the health of our energy industry. Jay Khosla, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Energy Sector at Natural Resources Canada, provides us with some insight into what this trip could mean to Canada’s energy future.

Jay Khosla
- Thanks. So my thinking on this mission is that it may be the single most important mission that this minister has taken since coming to office. The reason is that it falls in the backdrop of the potential for a Canada-China free trade agreement, and when you look at free trade or trade and Canada as a trading nation, energy is of primary importance.
- It’s 10 percent of our GDP, and we have an imperative to diversify out markets. We only have one costumer — it’s the United States — and China and its growth patterns will provide sustenance for Canada.
- So we need to build a partnership with its people and our resources and its people.
- We’re really looking forward to getting down on the ground and explaining to the Chinese that we have a long-term partnership both with the diaspora … Chinese people are integral to Canadian to the Canadian growth trajectory with our ability to supply them with the resources they need to get ahead in the world.

Host
- Minister Carr and his delegation will be leaving for China on June fifth.
- If you want the latest news surrounding this trip, we encourage you to follow our social media accounts. We have also created a webpage specifically for this trip, which you can find on our website at www.nrcan.gc.ca.
- So keep an eye out! Like every good world traveller, we might be sending you some postcards.

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