In the grand scheme of things, Canada’s exports to China make up only about 1.2% of China’s total imports ($30.5B CAD ≈ $22.5B USD vs. $2.586T USD total imports).
It's a small fraction, especially compared to major suppliers like the U.S., Australia, and Germany. Canada mainly exports commodities like crude oil, minerals, and agriculture (canola, pork, seafood), which China can often source from multiple other countries.
Given how much Canada relies on trade with the U.S., its economic influence in China is pretty limited. It’s a weird imbalance—Canada gets so little of China’s massive import market, yet China is still one of Canada’s top export destinations. It shows how over-reliant Canada is on the U.S. for trade. The government should be pushing much harder to diversify exports, especially with China being the world’s second-largest economy.
Other countries (like Australia) sell way more to China despite having tensions, so there's no excuse for Canada’s weak performance. Instead of just complaining about China or restricting trade, Canada should be aggressively expanding market access—securing better trade deals, promoting Canadian industries, and actually competing for a bigger slice of China’s import demand.
The government acts like the U.S. will always take care of Canada, but history has already proven that’s not true. The U.S. will always put its own interests first—just look at how they slapped tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, and lumber, or how they keep messing with energy projects like Keystone XL.
Meanwhile, other countries are aggressively expanding trade with China, but Canada is just sitting on its hands, pretending that selling almost everything to one customer (the U.S.) is a good long-term strategy. That’s economic suicide. Even if Canada wants to stay close to the U.S., it should still be actively building other markets to avoid being so dependent.
Canada has a huge natural advantage—it’s way closer to China than the Middle East, and it has tons of resources that China needs, like oil, natural gas, minerals, and agriculture. But instead of taking advantage of this, the government keeps messing up relations with China over politics, making trade expansion nearly impossible.
If Canada fixed the relationship first, it could easily increase exports, especially in energy. China is the world's largest importer of crude oil, and BC’s west coast is perfectly positioned to supply it faster and cheaper than Middle Eastern oil. LNG (liquefied natural gas) is another huge opportunity—Japan and South Korea are already big buyers, and China would be too if Canada got its act together.
But the government seems too scared to act because they don’t want to upset the U.S. The U.S. doesn’t want Canada selling too much energy to China because they see it as a strategic threat. Meanwhile, Australia, Russia, and the Middle East are all selling huge amounts of energy to China, and Canada is sitting on the sidelines like an idiot.
Canada should focus on trade and economic cooperation instead of getting dragged into political fights. At the end of the day, business is business—China still buys from countries it has political issues with (like Australia), because trade is mutually beneficial. Canada should do the same instead of letting politics get in the way of making money.
It's a small fraction, especially compared to major suppliers like the U.S., Australia, and Germany. Canada mainly exports commodities like crude oil, minerals, and agriculture (canola, pork, seafood), which China can often source from multiple other countries.
Given how much Canada relies on trade with the U.S., its economic influence in China is pretty limited. It’s a weird imbalance—Canada gets so little of China’s massive import market, yet China is still one of Canada’s top export destinations. It shows how over-reliant Canada is on the U.S. for trade. The government should be pushing much harder to diversify exports, especially with China being the world’s second-largest economy.
Other countries (like Australia) sell way more to China despite having tensions, so there's no excuse for Canada’s weak performance. Instead of just complaining about China or restricting trade, Canada should be aggressively expanding market access—securing better trade deals, promoting Canadian industries, and actually competing for a bigger slice of China’s import demand.
The government acts like the U.S. will always take care of Canada, but history has already proven that’s not true. The U.S. will always put its own interests first—just look at how they slapped tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, and lumber, or how they keep messing with energy projects like Keystone XL.
Meanwhile, other countries are aggressively expanding trade with China, but Canada is just sitting on its hands, pretending that selling almost everything to one customer (the U.S.) is a good long-term strategy. That’s economic suicide. Even if Canada wants to stay close to the U.S., it should still be actively building other markets to avoid being so dependent.
Canada has a huge natural advantage—it’s way closer to China than the Middle East, and it has tons of resources that China needs, like oil, natural gas, minerals, and agriculture. But instead of taking advantage of this, the government keeps messing up relations with China over politics, making trade expansion nearly impossible.
If Canada fixed the relationship first, it could easily increase exports, especially in energy. China is the world's largest importer of crude oil, and BC’s west coast is perfectly positioned to supply it faster and cheaper than Middle Eastern oil. LNG (liquefied natural gas) is another huge opportunity—Japan and South Korea are already big buyers, and China would be too if Canada got its act together.
But the government seems too scared to act because they don’t want to upset the U.S. The U.S. doesn’t want Canada selling too much energy to China because they see it as a strategic threat. Meanwhile, Australia, Russia, and the Middle East are all selling huge amounts of energy to China, and Canada is sitting on the sidelines like an idiot.
Canada should focus on trade and economic cooperation instead of getting dragged into political fights. At the end of the day, business is business—China still buys from countries it has political issues with (like Australia), because trade is mutually beneficial. Canada should do the same instead of letting politics get in the way of making money.
- Energy exports should be a priority—crude oil, LNG, and even uranium. China is hungry for stable energy sources, and Canada has plenty.
- Agriculture expansion—more canola, wheat, beef, pork, and seafood. China is a massive food market, and Canada produces high-quality products.
- Critical minerals—China needs lithium, nickel, and other resources for EV batteries and tech. Canada has them but isn’t capitalizing enough.
