China and Canada set for free trade talks as Harper pens multibillion-dollar deals

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Stephen Harper (L) shakes hands with Chinese VIce Premier Li Keqiang at the end of the closing of the 5th Canada-China Business Forum on February 9, 2012 in Beijing, China

• By Jason Fekete .

BEIJING — China and Canada declared Thursday that bilateral relations have reached “a new level” following a series of multibillion-dollar trade and business agreements to ship additional Canadian petroleum, uranium and other products to the Asian superpower.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Chinese leadership said Thursday the economic co-operation agreements — and billions of dollars in new private-sector deals — signed by the two countries over the past few days are unprecedented and will open the door to additional trade and investment.
The new deals further solidify a “strategic” partnership between the countries, particularly in terms of natural resources, with China’s top political leaders calling for “more large-scale co-operation” with Canada on oil and gas to feed China’s seemingly insatiable energy appetite...Read here...