Money Canada lent to China — debts that will take decades to be repaid — won’t earn any interest for taxpayers. .The “national interest loans” were issued through Export Development Canada (EDC), but required cabinet approval,and run to 2045, according to Blacklock’s Reporter..“From the 1980s to the early 2000s these loans were provided to Beijing,” cabinet wrote in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons. The loans were intended to support Canadian exports but “were suspended in the early 2000s.”.The figures, requested by Conservative MP Kelly McCauley, revealed 168 loans provided to China to buy Canadian goods. All but 21 loans were interest-free for 40 or 50 years, while others carried interest rates ranging from one to 9%. .“Loans were provided in the past to help ensure Canadian exporters could compete on equal footing with foreign competitors that may offer better financing,” the inquiry said. .Loans to China totaled $364,714,786. Final payments are not due until Feb. 15, 2045. .“The Canada Account is essentially a fund the staff recommends against, but the minister can do an override and make an investment for reasons best known to the minister,” Liberal MP John McKay told the Commons finance committee in 2010..The China loans were deemed to meet “national interest considerations” and EDC defined the term to include job creation, “importance of the export market to Canada” or “foreign policy implications.”.The zero-interest China loans far exceeded similar financing to other countries under the Export Development Act. Other lending included $96.2 million to Iraq, $86.4 million to Turkey, $67.5 million to Morocco, $42.6 million to India, $36 million to Argentina, $18 million to Pakistan, $7.1 million to Gabon, $6.4 million to Egypt, $5.4 million to Sudan,$4.8 million to Jamaica and $2.8 million to Venezuela..“Loans issued through the Canada Account can easily become grants,” Environmental Defence, an advocacy group, wrote in a 2020 critique of the loan program. “Any loss incurred is directly borne by Canadian taxpayers.”.Export Development Canada continued to carry the loans even as the Commons in 2021 voted unanimously to censure China for human rights atrocities including slave labour, forced internment and genocide against its Muslim Uyghur minority..Rachel Emmanuel is an Ottawa Parliamentary reporter for the Western Standard
