Europe's market too big to ignore
The European Union is Canada's second-largest export market after the United States. Its $19.5 trillion economy is larger than that of the U.S., and we can't afford to ignore it in hard times. But the Canada/EU relationship has been slipping. We're no longer one of their top 10 trading partners. In recent years India and Brazil bumped us into 11th place. That's worrisome at a time when the World Trade Organization talks to liberalize trade have collapsed, when "Buy American" style protectionism is on the rise, and when the global economic meltdown has shrunk markets. So Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Prague today to kick off a formal process to negotiate a Canada/European Union free trade deal that promises to generate a bit more wealth in hard times. Bolstering Canada's "strategic partnership" makes sense. Canada/EU trade was worth $110 billion last year, and two-way investment topped $400 billion. Under a new deal Canada could expect to reap an additional $13 billion annually in benefits, and the EU $18 billion. While Canada's $600 billion trade with the U.S. dwarfs that, the EU market is still well worth cultivatin
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