Chrystia Freeland Talks Tariffs, Trade and China Tensions

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/world/canada/chrystia-freeland-china-canada-letter.html

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When a senior American cabinet secretary shows up for an interview, it usually involves a motorcade of sleek, black cars complete with a “security package,” as they euphemistically call the guys with guns.

When Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, showed up this week for our public discussion at the University of Toronto, she came by bicycle.

Through the snow.

She didn’t seem to think much of it. This is Canada, after all. The country may be a bastion of liberal democracy that punches above its weight, as Ms. Freeland argued during our conversation Tuesday night, but it also has the feel of a village where everyone knows everyone else — and no one feels the need to rip each other’s guts out every day, as in Washington, where I normally work.

I’m Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The Times. Ms. Freeland agreed to be interviewed by Mark Thompson, the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, and me before an audience of nearly 500 as part of a continuing series of Times subscriber events in Canada. The conversation ranged from the fragile liberal international order to the Canadian-American relationship.

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Ms. Freeland, of course, is a former reporter and knows how we operate. Under questioning, she was friendly, open, thoughtful and way too smart to fall for our not-so-clever journalistic Jedi mind tricks.

We started with the then-breaking news of China’s detention of Michael Kovrig, an on-leave Canadian diplomat. “This has our attention at the very highest levels of our government,” she said. “We’re very, very focused on it.”

But when I noted that she had not answered a question about whether it was retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive, for extradition to the United States, she simply smiled.

“That’s right that I didn’t say that,” she said.

Was China pressuring Canada over Ms. Meng in other ways?

“That’s really a question for China,” she said diplomatically.

Ms. Freeland said Canada would not politicize Ms. Meng’s case. “We’re seeing a lot of countries around the world that are starting to play fast and loose with democratic institutions and with rule of law,” she said. “Canada is not going to be one of those countries.”

Is the United States one of those countries? I asked.

She smiled again.

Without vouching for her neighbor’s overall trajectory, Ms. Freeland said she had been impressed by “the incredible resilience of U.S. institutions, very much including the rule of law in the judiciary.”

We turned to the new trade agreement signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico. Was it true that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considered not actually attending in person?

“Our objective was always to get to a signing on the 30th of November, and we’re glad that we got there,” she said.

Ms. Freeland easily evaded our efforts to get her to open up about President Trump, who called Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, “very dishonest and weak” earlier this year. She did repeat Canada’s consternation at the steel and aluminum tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on national security grounds.

But she held out her own country as standing strong against the winds disrupting the liberal world order. “I would argue — and I don’t think this is gloating at all — I think Canada is the strongest liberal democracy in the world right now,” she said. “And if you guys disagree with me, name me one that’s stronger. Right? Truly. We’re standing pretty strong, and that’s great.”

And with that, she took a few audience questions, smiled again and bicycled off into the night.

Interested in catching up on our event with Chrystia Freeland? You can watch a full video replay here.

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This week’s Trans Canada and Around the Times highlights were compiled by Lindsey Wiebe, the Canada audience growth editor.

—China’s arrest of two Canadians this week following the detention of a Huawei executive in Vancouver has left Canada trapped between its largest trading partners.

—The entrepreneur Michael Spavor and the former diplomat Michael Kovrig spent decades working in authoritarian states. Now they are at the center of a perilous geopolitical battle.

—We can’t tell you how this vast cave in British Columbia went undetected for so long. But we can offer you a peek inside.

—Montreal is the latest city to grapple with coyotes attacking pets and people. Officials have landed on an unusual plan to scare them off.

—Helen Klaben was only 20 when she survived a month and a half in the Yukon winter after her plane crashed.

—Mobile phone apps constantly collect detailed location data from users. And they’re not keeping it to themselves.

—The opioid epidemic has given rise to a new kind of horror film: The overdose video. For people portrayed in them, life is never the same.

—Hockey, at its highest level, hasn’t been played in Seattle in nearly a century. But a Canadian transplant could help the city’s new N.H.L. team find its fandom.

—In this week’s ‘A Word With’ column, the actor Eric McCormack discussed two very different roles, and how he thinks about his dual Canada-U.S. citizenship.

—Ellen DeGeneres is getting sick of dancing — and considering whether to retire from her long-running hit show.