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With the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) now a fait accompli, Canada is pushing forward on another big trade file — its first bilateral trade agreement with China. While reaching an actual deal could take years, recent world events have made the deepening of relations with China an attractive option for Canada.

As with any free trade agreement, there are a myriad of concerns that need to be addressed for the deal to be palatable to both countries. But given previous disagreements on important areas, such as China’s human rights record, it is unlikely that both parties will agree on everything brought to the table in preliminary meetings.