Burnaby ends several friendship city relationships with China amid tariff war

The City of Burnaby has agreed to end several of its friendship city relationships with China amid an escalating tariff war.

During Tuesday night’s council meeting, councillors approved a report to end seven friendship city relationships with the People’s Republic of China, including Dalian, Chongquing, and Lin-an cities.

Coun. Pietro Calendino says friendship city relationships are less formal than sister city relationships, which have economic, cultural, and educational ties.

“And sometimes [the relationship is] even artistic,” said Calendino. “We had a group of artists that came from…China and they built up a relationship with artists here.”

The City of Burnaby recently approved a policy to have a maximum of five sister city and friendship city relationships. The policy is meant to streamline and ensure that sister and friendship cities align with Burnaby’s current social, cultural, and economic landscape.

Calendino says the ongoing tariffs between Canada and China played a role in the decision, but so did inactivity and costs.

“That was the final blow, I guess. I think the initial idea was that we had really not corresponded much with the ones that we had terminated, and obviously the current political tension played a role in it, but it wasn’t the main factor in it.”

Calendino says costs come from in-person visits to the sister or friendship city, which can be expensive. For example, the city plans to send a delegation to Japan later this year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its sister city relationship with Kushiro. If seven delegates flew business class for a one-week trip to Japan, the estimated cost of that trip would be over $62,000.

Overall, Calendino believes it was a good move to end the relationships.

“We can’t really maintain…these friendship relationships with all these cities, and if we don’t give them up, there’s no point in continuing to have them in the books.”

The report says many of the city’s friendship relationships were formed during the Asia Pacific Gateway initiative, a plan aimed at developing strategies to enhance the integration of British Columbia with the Asia Pacific region.

But now, the report says the current social, economic, and political context has shifted.

Earlier this month, China launched retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports after Canada imposed duties in October on Chinese-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products.