National free-trade zone sought
New West alliance lobbies provinces to expand on issue
EDMONTON — Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan say they have created a great free-trade zone in Western Canada that they want to introduce to the rest of the country at the gathering of Canada’s premiers later this summer. The three provinces that make up the New West Partnership have written a joint letter lobbying other provinces to make Canada a free-trade zone on all but a few exempted products, Alberta Premier David Hancock said Wednesday from Iqaluit where the western premiers are meeting.
“It’s working well for us in the New West Partnership,” Hancock said in a telephone interview after arriving in the Frobisher Bay community.
“That’s why the three of us have come together to say it is time for us to try to look at how this could be a model for broadening it right across the country.”
Hancock said the three provinces formed their own partnership because the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) Canadian provinces signed in 1995 isn’t working very well.
“We’ve really moved ahead because of frustration with the pace of progress under AIT,” Hancock said. “We wanted to kick it up a notch.”
The letter, obtained by The Canadian Press, calls on the other provincial leaders to commit to “truly modernize” the current agreement and remove the barriers that cost the economy an estimate $50 billion annually.
“As it stands, the AIT continues to allow anti-free trade behaviour which puts us on a slippery slope to protectionism at a time when we need to be removing barriers to trade and creating opportunities for our economies to diversify and grow,” it says.
It proposes an agreement based on a “negative list” approach that is as broad as possible, “where we negotiate what is out — not what is in.”
“It’s just time in our country that we have the kind of free trade we expect with other countries,” said Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
“We should have that between provinces. We know that freer trade is not perfect, but it’s better than protectionism. It’s better for the economy and we would like to see that.”
The letter also calls for the trade agreement to be written in “straightforward, accessible language,” include continued focus on labour mobility issues as well as “strong enforcement mechanisms with the teeth to make sure that we all play by the rules.”
“In short, we need an agreement that helps us strengthen our economy, that reduces the cost of doing business across Canada, and as a result provides opportunities for businesses to grow and our economies to diversify,” says the letter, which is signed by Hancock, Wall and B.C. Premier Christy Clark.
The issue already appears to be on the radar in Ottawa. Small Business Minister Maxime Bernier has said if Canada wants to remove foreign barriers, it must also tear down walls between provinces.
Hancock said the western premiers want to put the issue to the Council of the Federation in Charlottetown in August, but he doesn’t expect to get an agreement finalized there.
The deal could run into opposition on the home front. Ivonne Martinez, president of the Alberta Liquor Store Association, said there is opposition in Alberta to a pitch by B.C. wineries to ship their products directly to consumers in other provinces.