Reflections on Sino‐Canadian Coperation in APEC

During the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation cycle, Canada has assumed the function of chair. Ronald Keith examines Sino‐Canadian relations in light of their roles within APEC, and how the separate approaches to regional integration of Canada and China may affect their relations with each other. Both evince support for APEC's principle of “open regionalism,” but their differences are clearly important. Canada follows a “WTO‐Plus” approach, according to Keith, viewing regional trade Liberalization as a part of a building “bloc” strategy with liberalization of the global system as the goal, while China's position is much more reserved. For China, the preferred outcome of “open regionalism” is controlled regional trade Liberalization and the attitude toward for a Like the WTO more protectionist. The author examines how these attitudes have evolved in recent years, and how they will shape Sino‐Canadian relations and the APEC strategies of the two countries in the coming years.

Notes

Ronald Keith is with the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. The author would like to acknowledge the support of the SSHRC. He would also like to express his gratitude for the helpful comments of his colleague, Donald Barry.