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On September 18, 2025, Philippe Rheault, Director of The China Institute, participated in a high-level discussion hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), titled Investment and China: A Unified North American Strategy on Economic Security. The hybrid event brought together senior policymakers and experts from across North America for a candid exchange on the future of trilateral coordination in trade, investment, and economic security.

Highlights

• Overstretched partners: Philippe noted that while Canada and Mexico ideally should focus on coordinating engagement with China from a North American perspective, much of their bandwidth is consumed by managing their primary economic and security partnership with the United States.
• Sharpening the focus of trilateral coordination: He emphasized that effective trilateral coordination should concentrate on real economic challenges — from dumping and transshipment to resilience and security risks — rather than disengagement as a guiding principle.
• Alignment on core matters while preserving differentiated priorities: Philippe highlighted that a shared understanding of priorities allows each partner to pursue its own China strategy while preserving a core common approach where it matters most.
• Beyond a purely US-centric model: He underscored that an overly US-centric framework that overlooks the diversity of commercial and economic interests is impractical and politically unsustainable.
• Balancing interests with security in investment: Philippe pointed out that sustainable cooperation depends on balancing economic interests with national security and protecting sovereignty. He noted that Canada, through the Investment Canada Act, has the tools to be a responsible partner with a strong record of effective review.

With the USMCA renegotiation on the horizon, the event provided a valuable opportunity to share Canadian perspectives in Washington and engage in a timely conversation about the North American partnership and its approach to China—a discussion increasingly moving from diagnosing challenges toward shaping constructive paths forward.