NAFTA
I remember back in Grade 10, a year or so before the softwood lumber agreement expired, our Social Studies teacher put up some economic figures on the overhead projector. Most of the figures dealt with Canada's trade relationship with the United States, including the percentage of Canada's exports/imports that went to and came from America and the percentage of America's exports/imports that went to and came from Canada.
The Social Studies teacher then asked the class to comment on the figures. The common response from the students who raised their hands was that Canada needed America much more than America needed Canada. This was not out of some pro-American bias in our classroom - it was based on simple math.
Hopefully the federal cabinet and the Prime Minister in particular comes to grips with this reality before they makes the irresponsible mistake of entering into a trade war with the United States.
Not only would it potentially devastate some of Canada's exporters, it would naturally hurt Canada's consumers as well.
Yes, it is true that Canada has oil (which is something many Canadians seem to point to these days in anticipation of a trade war) - as if mentioning that over and over again will somehow scare away America's tendency to use its leverage in our trading partnership to bully us, but where does most of that oil come from?
Somehow, I can't imagine Alberta playing along with any proposals that limit oil exports to the United States.
I know that it's tough to actually offer solutions that might make America less likely to enact unfair trade practices, but it'd probably be a good start if our governing party didn't play on crude anti-Americanism in order to get elected and when in office, if their strategy in dealing with policy issues consisted of actual substance instead of blaming America.
Oh, and if Canada sent a few dozen troops into a relatively safe area of Iraq in order to provide security for reconstruction, our bargaining position would be way stronger... but of course, that's not gonna happen.
The Social Studies teacher then asked the class to comment on the figures. The common response from the students who raised their hands was that Canada needed America much more than America needed Canada. This was not out of some pro-American bias in our classroom - it was based on simple math.
Hopefully the federal cabinet and the Prime Minister in particular comes to grips with this reality before they makes the irresponsible mistake of entering into a trade war with the United States.
Not only would it potentially devastate some of Canada's exporters, it would naturally hurt Canada's consumers as well.
Yes, it is true that Canada has oil (which is something many Canadians seem to point to these days in anticipation of a trade war) - as if mentioning that over and over again will somehow scare away America's tendency to use its leverage in our trading partnership to bully us, but where does most of that oil come from?
Somehow, I can't imagine Alberta playing along with any proposals that limit oil exports to the United States.
I know that it's tough to actually offer solutions that might make America less likely to enact unfair trade practices, but it'd probably be a good start if our governing party didn't play on crude anti-Americanism in order to get elected and when in office, if their strategy in dealing with policy issues consisted of actual substance instead of blaming America.
Oh, and if Canada sent a few dozen troops into a relatively safe area of Iraq in order to provide security for reconstruction, our bargaining position would be way stronger... but of course, that's not gonna happen.
posted by Japnaam Singh at
4:45 PM
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