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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mulled sending a delegation to China in a bid to reverse the canola bans — a plan some critics say fails to recognize the depth of the differences between the two nations.

“It will simply be humiliating for Canada, and give the Chinese a pretext to further their pressure on Canada,” said Charles Burton, professor at Brock University and former counsellor at the Canadian embassy to China.

“The idea that the prime minister could send a delegation to China and reason with them, that their claims about the purity of our canola shipments are unfounded, is ridiculous,” he said. Burton is also a senior fellow at MLI.

In her report, Chen said a free trade agreement with China would likely involve reducing barriers for Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to acquire assets in Canada.

China in particular is looking to reduce a threshold set by the Harper government that automatically triggers a review of proposed acquisitions by SOEs when they go over a certain price. The threshold was introduced after Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd. acquired Canadian oilsands firm Nexen Energy Inc. in 2012 for $15.1 billion, part of a widespread push by China to buy natural resources assets abroad. That push set off national security concerns in Canada, Australia and elsewhere.

Chinese SOEs have long been known to use their clout to further the broader ambitions of the Communist Party of China. The proposed takeover of Canadian construction firm Aecon Group Inc. by a Chinese SOE was ultimately struck down last year by Ottawa, which cited national security concerns.