Canada, build on our reputation

Dear Editor: I spent more than 20 years of my career dealing with international clients. That included 10 years before the NAFTA agreement in 1994.

During that time, I had clients in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. We had to deal with tariffs and duties but they changed at a slow rate over the years.

However, dealing with different currencies was a much bigger problem. In a fiveyear period, the CAD/USD exchange rate varied from .68 to 1.05 and the CAD/EU from .63 to .78 . That is very hard for a company that has multiple year contracts in another currency. Especially when you have so many fixed costs.

So what would happen if/when NAFTA collapses?

First we would revert to the WTO, which began in 1995 and has 164 countries as members. The duties for Most Favourable Nations, would be approximately 3.5 per cent which most companies could handle.

Second, we have the CETA (EU) which is 28 countries with a population of 510-million and GDP of $20 trillion. This agreement will remove duties on 98 per cent of goods over the next decade.

If NAFTA dies, our trade with Mexico could be covered with Canada signing TPP 11, which includes 11 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam) with a population of 486-million and GDP of $11-trillion.

It is expected that China will have the largest economy within a decade. It has a population of 1.4 billion and a GDP of $12 trillion. This compares to the U.S. population of 320 million and GDP of $17-trillion.

As U.S President Donald Trump builds more trade walls and the U.S. becomes more isolationist, the door is open for Canada to spread its wings globally. As an example, our own local Gorman Bros Lumber now splits its business one-third, among Canada, the U.S. and abroad.

In my travels, I have found that we Canadians have a respected reputation and we should build on that. David Perron West Kelowna