Canada's international trade minister quietly sounded out officials at the Department of National Defence last spring about how much of the content in the navy's new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships could be sourced back to China, newly released documents reveal.
The unusual April request from the office of François-Philippe Champagne, who was international trade minister at the time, was made as Canadian negotiators were struggling to negotiate a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with the Trump administration — which has become increasingly suspicious of the involvement of Chinese companies in the defence and high-tech sectors. Champagne was shuffled last summer to the infrastructure portfolio. Officials who worked for him said Wednesday they were not sure what his request was about.
Defence and intelligence experts find the inquiry about the warship components curious — and not only because of Washington's growing trade fight with Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment