Trudeau Liberals Face Warnings On Chinese Bid For Aecon
The Trudeau Liberals are facing warnings to continue mindfully and in as straightforward a way as conceivable as they measure a Chinese state-owned company’s bid to take over Aecon construction, which has headquarters in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
The warnings come even with strong affirmations by the Liberal government that Canada’s quest for more profound trade relations with China is full steam ahead in spite of recommendations that such excitement could risk angering the Trump government amid the North American Free Trade renegotiations.
CCCC International Holding Ltd. of China has made a $1.5-billion bid to purchase Aecon Group Inc., which has a storied 140-year history in landmark Canadian construction and engineering tasks, for example, the CN Tower, Vancouver’s SkyTrain and the Halifax Shipyard.
CCCC International has some less propitious late history. The World Bank prohibited it from bidding on construction ventures for a long time until this past January due to an bid-rigging scandal in the Philippines.
The state-owned company has likewise been connected to the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, which has made high tension amongst China and a few Asian nations.
The administration says it will audit the bid to choose if there is a “net benefit” to Canada as required, however has not clarified whether a national security test will be imposed on the company. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the arrangement will be checked on “very carefully” under the Canada Investment Act.
Dismissing the arrangement would outrage China, which is on edge to begin free trade talks with Canada, and keeps up that an eventual arrangement would give more sureness to its potential investors in Canada.
Canada needs to seek after free trade talks with China else it will move toward becoming “hostage to an American negotiating strategy and the fate of NAFTA,” said Paul Evans, of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia.
Be that as it may, the administration needs to practice alert when it measures all investment bids by China, he said.
“There is still a high degree of wariness about FDI (foreign direct investment) and particularly from state-owned enterprises,” said Evans.
“It’s going to be really important for the government to be both transparent and forthcoming on what are the calculations that lay beneath their decision on either national security or net benefit to Canada.”
