Canada and Free Trade
This week's decision to let Canada into talks for a new Pacific free trade pact.
Canada already has free trade agreements with four nations taking part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks — Mexico, Peru, Chile and the crucially important United States.
The remaining six—Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Brunei — aren't giants of the world economy.
We could probably survive quite well without, say, a Canada-Vietnam free trade deal What is important about the proposed Trans-Pacific pact, however, is that it may end up becoming the world's premier trade arrangement,but since 2001, the WTO has been mired in a grinding dispute over agricultural subsidies and manufacturing tariffs.
Meanwhile, Canada responded to the WTO deadlock by negotiating a dizzying array of bilateral trade pacts with countries ranging from Israel to Colombia
The trend accelerated under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who opened free trade talks with Japan and the European Union.
For a while, Harper stayed away from the Trans-Pacific talks — in part because he knew the price of entry would require Canada to eliminate agricultural supply management schemes that favour Quebec poultry and dairy farmers.
This week, Pacific Partnership members agreed to let Canada and Mexico join. Canada needs to diversify trade, given the struggling American economy and Europe's debt crisis, and the boom in East Asia and Latin America We also need to protect the trade deals we have. While the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are in what Harper describes as a "fairly preliminary" stage, they fit nicely with his drive to build business abroad. The negotiators aim to create a trade zone that encompasses not only the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but also Chile, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei. That's a $20-trillion market of 650 million people. The talks aim to "build on" the existing North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade pacts by reducing tariffs, prying open government procurement, strengthening protection for intellectual property.
The at G20 meeting in Mexico Tuesday. Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington has just estimated that a TPP could generate almost $300 billion more in annual income among the partners. For Canada, that would imply a $10- billion bump-up. Those gains could be far larger, in the $2 trillion range collectively, if the TPP were to be adopted as a template by the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group that also includes China, Russia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The TPP is U.S. President Barack Obama's way of deepening ties with key Asian partners, in part to offset China's influence.
Concerns have been raised by the US. and others about Canada's supply management to protect farmers who produce poultry, eggs and dairy products. About investment in telecommunications and cultural industries. About copyright protection and intellectual property rights. And about our attitudes toward foreign investment. Next on the agenda is the East Indian Market.
India is being wooed by the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and just about everybody else. Issues and people tug at you every waking minute.
India's booming economy has slowed down, from near double-digit growth for years to below 6 per cent this year. But thaf s still impressive, considering whafs happening in Europe, the US., Japan and elsewhere.
While India long ago abandoned its pro- Soviet Cold War era policy, if s not taking orders from Washington. Ifs pursuing an independent foreign policy. Last year, it bought European fighter jets, not American ones.
It twice voted with the US. on Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency but strongly opposes an American/Israeli attack on Iran, which the Stephen Harper government sounds gung-ho about War on Iran would disrupt the security and economy of the entire Gulf region, where 6 million Indians work and repatriate $4O billion a year in remittances.
The US. needs India as a counterweight to China And it needs India's help in Afghanistan.India has been quietly effective in Afghanistan, doing $2 billion in development work. It has a deal with Turkmenistan to pipe gas through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.
India's dialogue with Pakistan is focused on improving trade and the movement of people with easier visas. While trading heavily with China, India is competing with it in Africa There it has provided $5 billion in aid, connected 47 countries on the continent with a fibre-optic network.
Canada already has free trade agreements with four nations taking part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks — Mexico, Peru, Chile and the crucially important United States.
The remaining six—Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Brunei — aren't giants of the world economy.
We could probably survive quite well without, say, a Canada-Vietnam free trade deal What is important about the proposed Trans-Pacific pact, however, is that it may end up becoming the world's premier trade arrangement,but since 2001, the WTO has been mired in a grinding dispute over agricultural subsidies and manufacturing tariffs.
Meanwhile, Canada responded to the WTO deadlock by negotiating a dizzying array of bilateral trade pacts with countries ranging from Israel to Colombia
The trend accelerated under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who opened free trade talks with Japan and the European Union.
For a while, Harper stayed away from the Trans-Pacific talks — in part because he knew the price of entry would require Canada to eliminate agricultural supply management schemes that favour Quebec poultry and dairy farmers.
This week, Pacific Partnership members agreed to let Canada and Mexico join. Canada needs to diversify trade, given the struggling American economy and Europe's debt crisis, and the boom in East Asia and Latin America We also need to protect the trade deals we have. While the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are in what Harper describes as a "fairly preliminary" stage, they fit nicely with his drive to build business abroad. The negotiators aim to create a trade zone that encompasses not only the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but also Chile, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Brunei. That's a $20-trillion market of 650 million people. The talks aim to "build on" the existing North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade pacts by reducing tariffs, prying open government procurement, strengthening protection for intellectual property.
The at G20 meeting in Mexico Tuesday. Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington has just estimated that a TPP could generate almost $300 billion more in annual income among the partners. For Canada, that would imply a $10- billion bump-up. Those gains could be far larger, in the $2 trillion range collectively, if the TPP were to be adopted as a template by the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group that also includes China, Russia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The TPP is U.S. President Barack Obama's way of deepening ties with key Asian partners, in part to offset China's influence.
Concerns have been raised by the US. and others about Canada's supply management to protect farmers who produce poultry, eggs and dairy products. About investment in telecommunications and cultural industries. About copyright protection and intellectual property rights. And about our attitudes toward foreign investment. Next on the agenda is the East Indian Market.
India is being wooed by the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and just about everybody else. Issues and people tug at you every waking minute.
India's booming economy has slowed down, from near double-digit growth for years to below 6 per cent this year. But thaf s still impressive, considering whafs happening in Europe, the US., Japan and elsewhere.
While India long ago abandoned its pro- Soviet Cold War era policy, if s not taking orders from Washington. Ifs pursuing an independent foreign policy. Last year, it bought European fighter jets, not American ones.
It twice voted with the US. on Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency but strongly opposes an American/Israeli attack on Iran, which the Stephen Harper government sounds gung-ho about War on Iran would disrupt the security and economy of the entire Gulf region, where 6 million Indians work and repatriate $4O billion a year in remittances.
The US. needs India as a counterweight to China And it needs India's help in Afghanistan.India has been quietly effective in Afghanistan, doing $2 billion in development work. It has a deal with Turkmenistan to pipe gas through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.
India's dialogue with Pakistan is focused on improving trade and the movement of people with easier visas. While trading heavily with China, India is competing with it in Africa There it has provided $5 billion in aid, connected 47 countries on the continent with a fibre-optic network.
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