Canada and the United States have an extradition treaty agreement to honour each other's request for arrests. Unfortunately, Canada has been put in a really horrible situation with the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.
Like the Safe Third Country Agreement, Canada's willingness to go along with the United States on an agreement is biting them in the posterior.
We have already seen the Chinese government confirm the detention of 2 Canadians: entrepreneur Michael Spavor and former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig on "endangering national security." This is on top of the threats that may lead to more negative consequences for Canada.
The United States wants to extradite Meng from Canada to the United States for, well, unofficially over concern that Skycom, an alleged subsidiary company, violated U.S. trade sanctions with Iran.
Meng was arrested December 1 in Vancouver as she was switching planes. Meng was released on $10 million CDN bail Tuesday. Her next court date is February 6.
A Eastern District of New York judge issued an arrest warrant for Meng in August.
Canada did unusual favour for U.S. to arrest Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese tech giant #Huawei. Can we talk #tariffs now? https://t.co/4eDj3ZTCzB
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) December 6, 2018
There is a sense of concern over the Chinese telecommunications giant and its ties to the Chinese government to security issues, especially with the implementation of 5G. Huawei is a major sponsor of Rogers Sportsnet with Hockey Night in Canada. While the visual elements remained in the Sportsnet coverage, there was no audio copy that is usually found in the sponsorship.
"Our extradition partners should not seek to politicize the extradition process or use it for ends other than the pursuit of justice," said Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
To no one's surprise, Donald Trump spoke on just that point. Even before that remark, there was considerable speculation that this was a political arrest. Even if the allegations are true, Meng hasn't violated any Canadian laws. As long as Meng is on Canadian soil, Canada will suffer as a result.
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As you might recall in the USMCA/CUSMA negotiations, the United States sneaked a provision that if Canada were to negotiate a trade deal with China (without saying China) that the United States would have to get access to secret negotiation information from Canada. The arrest hurts Canadian trade negotiations with China while helping the United States work out a deal with China.
The arrest of Meng Wanzhou might be justified in terms of the charges but this dispute shouldn't involve Canada. The United States is once again taking advantage of Canada's integrity in international agreements.
As we noted in the above tweet, the United States still has major tariffs in steel, aluminum, softwood lumber, and Bombardier planes (threatened) against Canada. There is a USMCA/CUSMA deal in place and still the tariffs exist. Canada should retain integrity in agreements but find some way to fight back against unfair practices by the United States.
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
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