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Justin Trudeau is expected to announce he is heading to Beijing early next month to launch free trade talks with China.

The trip has not been finalized but diplomatic sources suggest he will head east in the first week of December.

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The Prime Minister has just returned from Asia, where he committed Canada to the “core principles” of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement between 11 countries including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

But Canada remains reluctant to sign on to a final TPP agreement, specifically over concerns that weaker rules of origin on auto components than those in force under the North American Free Trade Agreement would complicate the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation with the United States and Mexico.

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The main prize of a TPP agreement would be preferential access to the Japanese market for Canada’s resource and agri-food industries. But Trudeau is wary of undermining the NAFTA talks for limited gains under TPP.