Editorial China co-operation could backfire?

There could be both good news and bad news in a new federal initiative to strengthen the links between this country and the People’s Republic of China, in the mining sector.

Minister of State for Mines Gerald Merrithew announced a few days ago that he has exchanged letters of intent with China’s minister of metallurgical industry, Qi Yuan Jing, “to ensure continued growth in co-operation between their governments in the ferrous minerals and metals sector.”

“I envisage,” Mr Merrithew said, “that this co-operation will include exchanging views and information on the ferrous minerals and metals sector, including resources, reserves, production, markets and technology development.” China, which currently produces about 50 million tonnes of steel annually, also imports about 20 million tonnes of steel every year, and is expected to rely on iron and steel imports through the year 2000 and beyond.

Where the rub might lie for Canada in the new Canada/China pact is in Mr Merrithew’s expectation that increased co-operation would facilitate access to the Chinese market for Canadian technology and equipment.

The fact is that China is a virtually untapped giant in metals and minerals, with huge as-yet-undeveloped deposits of everything from gold to nickel and copper. The country is already challenging, or in the next few years is expected to challenge, our No 3 position as a world gold producer, and can be expected in the future to do much the same kind of thing in the base metals and other sectors.

Export of our mining technology and equipment may very well be a short-term benefit to us, but over the longer haul we could be helping develop new world competition in mining on a gigantic scale.