Surging Taiwan-Canada Relations Highlight Trade, Politics and Shared Values
Somewhere at the confluence of politics, commerce, and shared values driving a recent wave of Canadian fascination with Taiwan, there were the island’s “freedom pineapples.” In 2021, imports of the fruit enjoyed a spike in interest internationally when China banned them from its market. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry urged “like-minded friends” around the world to stand up to China by buying “freedom pineapples,” and the phenomenon took off. At Kuohua Trading Co., a Taiwanese supermarket in Richmond, B.C., a member of the sales staff said on Friday that while they only imported a small number of pineapples during the campaign, they sold quickly and created word-of-mouth advertising on social media. “Word spreads quickly online,” she said. Overall Canadian trade with Taiwan is up sharply. There has also been a spate of visits by Canadian politicians, despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations. Related Stories Canada-China ties might be chilly, but Taiwan—which split from mainland China amid a civil war in 1949—is hot right now. Lihsin Angel Liu, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver and Taiwan’s main representative in Western Canada, said part of that is “sympathy” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She said she had seen more willingness from Canadian officials to engage Taiwan since the pandemic—albeit with the One China Policy as a guiding framework. The policy dating back to 1970 recognizes the People’s Republic as the sole legitimate government of China. However, because of the Ukrainian war, I think we have earned a lot of sympathy, and we have earned a lot of support from the European countries as well as from Canadian government. Our bilateral ties (are) progressing in a very flexible way, in a very tangible way that we see as a positive direction to push forward. In October, Canada and Taiwan completed negotiations of a foreign investment promotion and protection arrangement, or FIPA, a major bilateral deal that’s expected to spur more economic links. Canadian imports from Taiwan, meanwhile, are up 76 percent from $5.4 billion in 2017 to $9.5 billion in 2022. The Canadian International Council think tank holds regular discussions on foreign topics among its 18 branches. Last year, Canada launched its Indo-Pacific Strategy as a “comprehensive road map” of future engagement in Asia. It mentioned Taiwan seven times, in topics such as Indigenous reconciliation and economic co-operation, and the Taiwan Strait a further three times. “That’s pretty unusual because generally, we tended to do our deals with Taiwan but not make too much fuss about it, to do it quietly,” Stephens said. “There’s no attempt to hide our interest in Taiwan (in the strategy).” Liu said the E-One Moli announcement received significant attention in Taiwan, and hopes it inspires others in the green energy sector to explore working with Canada. “The world economy is turning from globalization to friend-shoring, near-shoring or just to do business with the countries you share the same values with,” she said. “So Canada is doing (it) the same way.” But challenges remain for Taiwan on the international stage. The island has been unsuccessful gaining admission to groupings such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc and the World Health Organization. Taiwan is Canada’s 12th largest trade partner with total trade in 2022 reaching $12 billion, while trade with China—Canada’s second largest partner—accounted for $129 billion in the same time period.
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