National Post (National Edition)
Dothe free-trade shuffle
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s imminent cabinet reshuffle comes at an exceptionally critical time for Canada’s export economy.
NAFTA is in jeopardy. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Transpacific Partnership (the CPTPP, but formerly known as the TPP) is stalled. Recent foreign trade missions have devolved into bad political theatre. And a tariff war with the U.S. now threatens key sectors of our Canadian economy.
One in five Canadian jobs and 60 per cent of our GDP is linked to international trade, yet never before have Canada’s trading prospects appeared so bleak.
A multitude of challenges — most of which are selfinflicted — have coalesced in recent months to seriously jeopardize both long-standing and prospective trading relationships that are crucial to our economic well being.
International Trade is a file in desperate need of a course correction, and Mr. Trudeau’s upcoming cabinet reshuffle, expected this week and as early as Wednesday, is the perfect opportunity to do so.
There is certainly no shortage of unfortunate examples of how the Trudeau government has mismanaged our trade interests.
Last year, the prime minister derailed CPTPP negotiations by intentionally skipping a critical negotiating session in Vietnam. This erratic behaviour embarrassed Canada on the international stage and upset our traditional allies and trading partners, such as Japan and Australia. It also led to delays in the signing of this critical trade deal. Canadians were promised legislation this spring to ratify the agreement, but it was introduced too late in the session to be debated. It remains today stalled on the legislative agenda, despite efforts by our Conservative opposition to fast track the approval process.
A highly touted trip to China to secure a free-trade agreement with our secondlargest trading partner resulted in another embarrassment when Mr. Trudeau and International Trade Minister François-philippe Champagne could not even secure a commitment to begin formal discussions. Moreover, the government failed to address any of the concerns Canadians had flagged in domestic consultations undertaken before the trip.
Canada also remains without a softwood-lumber agreement with the United States. Remember the 2016 White House Rose Garden press briefing between then president Barack Obama and our prime minister in which they assured us that a framework for resolving this dispute would be in place within 90 days? Well that was nearly 2½ years ago, and still no agreement. During the last dispute, over 15,000 jobs were lost in British Columbia, and our Canadian forestry producers had to pay $5.4 billion in duties to the Americans.
And then there was India. Mr. Trudeau’s travelling road show failed to include Canada’s trade or agriculture ministers, missing an opportunity to resolve long-standing trade irritants between our two countries. Once again, Mr. Trudeau failed to capitalize on an opportunity to open new markets for Canadian farmers and manufacturers while alienating the world’s most populous country with ridiculous PR stunts and controversial diplomatic guests.
These high-profile international gaffes, combined with the Liberals’ high-tax, anti-growth economic agenda, have seriously compromised our ability to trade and attract foreign investment. Taxes on fuel, transportation, and business operations and onerous regulations have made it increasingly difficult to make the case that international firms need access to Canadian markets.
If ever there was file in need of a reset, it’s international trade.
I am proud to say that during my Conservative party’s time in government, we secured trade access to more than 45 countries. Both NAFTA and the Canada-european Union Free Trade Agreement (CETA) are legacies of previous Conservative governments and remain powerful testaments to the merits of free trade.
Mr. Trudeau has an obligation to protect the millions of well-paying, highquality jobs that rely on free trade and to pursue greater and freer trade into the future.
His government has mismanaged this file for three years. He now has an opportunity to get it right.
When the dust settles after this week’s cabinet shuffle, Canadians should have renewed confidence that the prime minister has put his government’s past trade failures behind him and is squarely focused on securing our free trade future.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IS A FILE IN DESPERATE NEED OF A COURSE CORRECTION.