Canadian Government Executive - Volume 25 - Issue 02

32 / Canadian Government Executive // April/May 2019 Trade And of course, Europe is very important for imports because we actually practice true trade back and forth. Imports and exports are vital. That’s still the biggest market for Atlantic Canada it’s about 65-70 per cent; it’s a bit higher for all of Canada because for Ontario, 92.5 per cent of what they export goes to the United States. It is very important that we continue to work the market in the United States, and that means both business people remind- ing those who they supply or those they buy from that we are their biggest export market. You can actually track this down to the district-level, the incoming shares of the House ways and means, and the sub- committee on trade from Massachusetts and New Jersey respectively: the biggest market for their districts is Canada. I think when I first met Darrell, he was involved as member of the Legislative As- sembly with his counterparts on the Amer- ican side. We need to do more of that. It is retail politics, but all politics and all trade are local. We’re going to have to make the case. We’ve been doing that over the last year-and-a-half as part of the NAFTA ne- gotiations, so have the Mexicans, but we are going to have to continue that in the months to come. In the meantime, the NAFTA is in place. We’ve got two other big agreements. The Canada-Europe trade agreement: 99 per cent of that is in effect. Pierre is our envoy in that because it is done with another Federation, the Federation of Nations; we have to get all of the individual nations to sign on, and that includes France, Ger- many, and Italy. That’s important, I think. That’s going to require political push again at some point. As we know, the Europeans have endless challenges of their own right now, frommi- gration to Brexit, to leadership succession to the yellow jackets in France. But I think that premiers should be thinking about go- ing over there with the Prime Minister as a kind of Team Canada Inc. mission, like what Pierre very successfully participated in with Jean Chretien when he was Minis- ter of International Trade. We have a vested interest, and you have a vested interest because, know it or not, your future livelihood depends on trade, and we are trading nation. The other big agreement we’ve signed is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That is in place, and that will reap dividends. China’s difficult, but we’ve opened up markets in Vietnam, and so seafood, for example, will be headed to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. A lot of opportunity there. Darrell Dexter We’ve touched on China, Canada, the U.S., and now we’re going to have an opportu- nity to hear a little bit about the European Union and our trade arrangement there. In this atmosphere, where it appears that like Euro-skeptics have won out in Britain – which seems to be a tragedy in numer- ous acts that is playing out on the world stage almost day by day. But it’s very im- portant to be seen, especially for Atlantic Canada. It’s a very important agreement, which was going to allow many of the premium seafood products from Atlantic Canada into the E.U. Pierre Pettigrew One thing on CETA: I’d like to bring your attention to the fact that actually the 28 countries have already signed it. It has been applied for 95 per cent of the con- tent of the agreement. It’s been applied since September 1 last year. We’re already 16 months into it, and Colin is quite right that we have to continue the pressure on the ratification process. We do not need the ratification for its application, so don’t say I’ll keep my part to dry on the Europe- an Union. It’s there; it’s implemented and active for 95 per cent of the provisions. There’s only like 5 per cent of the agree- ment that will kick in when the ratifica- tion process is complete – hopefully soon. Let me contribute to this conversation the fact that the planet was radically changed in 2016. When Great Britain voted Brexit and when the United States elected Trump, these were two very radi- cal departures from a 70-year consensus that had existed in these two countries that have been leading the world since 1945 – mostly the United States, but the British contributed a great deal to the Bretton Woods conference. John Maynard Keynes was there, and some Canadians as well, so we were part of the EU con- sensus in favour of multilateralism, open markets, rule of law and democracy. It was that consensus that was accentuated in the late 70s because, as that progressed on the western side in our country, in the developed countries it had produced the thirty glorious years of ‘45 to ‘75. They were absolutely amazing in terms of de- velopment. In the late 70s, emerging on “Atlantic Canada is fast growing in involvement with China, but my advice is that we wait and see what happens there. And of course, Europe is very important for imports because we actually practice true trade back and forth. Imports and exports are vital. ” — Colin Robertson