Although Hu Jintao’s visit to North America was overshadowed by coverage of Hurricane Katrina, one theme that came through clearly in Canadian reporting was our desire to expand trade with China.
Bilateral trade with the People’s Republic currently is worth about $20 billion a year, and accounts for just a tiny fraction of each country’s international commerce. The goal is to lift that amount to $30 billion by 2010, which seems not unreasonable in light of rising prices for Canadian natural resources and China’s ravenous demand for same.