Trans-pacific trade deal on the front burner

Feds expected to table legislation on Thursday

OTTAWA • With the terms of the Canada-u.s. trading relationship uncertain, the Canadian government plans to table legislation Thursday to ratify a trans-pacific trade agreement and expects it will soon have additional trade commissioners on the ground in Asia and Europe to encourage exports to new tariff-free markets, according to a senior official.

The U.S. imposition of tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, an investigation into tariffs on autos and the seemingly endless renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement have added impetus to Canada’s efforts to trade with other partners. While the U.S. remains by far Canada’s biggest trading partner, the volatility of that relationship under U.S. President Donald Trump and its direct effect on the livelihoods of Canadians have been put into sharp relief over the past few weeks.

“From the beginning, we have said that our approach would be to hope for the best, to work for the best possible outcome, but to always be prepared for the work, to have a plan B, C, D, E and F and maybe to the end of the alphabet,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday of NAFTA.

That’s why “there has never been a better time to diversify,” said Joseph Pickerill, a spokesman for Trade Minister François-philippe Champagne. “In a world where preferential access is the critical ingredient for success, particularly for an economy the size of ours, Canada is poised to become literally the most connected to global consumers,” he told the National Post. “This is potentially one of the most exciting pivotal moments in Canadian trading history.”

Some experts are wont to look upon things with a little more pessimism, saying that other trade deals can’t replace the U.S. — but at least they’re “something,” as Jason Langrish, executive director of the Canada Europe Roundtable for Business, recently told the Post.

Canada already has access to the Europe Union through its Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which came into effect in September. “With regards to trade diversification, the numbers are starting to show for CETA that it is happening,” Langrish said.

A senior government official, who spoke on the condition they not be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said Canada wants to be among the first countries to ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The government is expected to table legislation Thursday and the normal 21day period for Parliament to consider the text of the trade deal itself will be waived as it was for CETA.

As soon as six of the 11 countries party to the deal have passed bills in their legislatures ratifying the deal, a new free-trade zone with common regulations can take effect encompassing most of the Pacific’s largest economies. (China is not included and while the U.S. had been party to the original Trans-pacific Partnership, Trump withdrew from negotiations during his first few days in office.)

Meanwhile, Canada continues to negotiate a trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc in South America, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Canada is also negotiating an upgrade to its membership in the Pacific Alliance, consisting of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, which the government hopes will result in preferential access to those markets.

Getting businesses to take advantage of new markets is an even bigger job than actually securing trade agreements, Carlo Dade of the Canada West Foundation said Tuesday. “Suddenly you’ve got agreements that matter. We’ve got more than enough friggin’ work on our hands just trying to get business up to speed on the EU and to get business up to speed on the (CPTPP). These are huge markets, huge potential and it’s going to take an inordinate amount of work,” Dade said.