by L. Ian MacDonald

2008

Wednesday 27 August 2008 OTTAWA: FREE-TRADE ACCORD REACHED WITH JORDAN
The minister of international trade, Michael Fortier, has announced that a free-trade agreement has been negotiated with Jordan, and accord which he says will open up important opportunities for Canadian businesses. The accord will be submitted in the form of a bill for approval by Parliament. The government says the accord will improve access to Jordanian markets for both Canadian agricultural commodities and industrial goods. Last year, bilateral trade amounted to $76 million.

Tuesday 12 August 2008 OTTAWA: TRADE MINISTER ON LATAM TRIP
Federal Trade Minister Michael Fortier will start a visit to Mexico, Panama and Ecuador this week. The visits, which started in Mexico on Monday, are intended to reinforce economic relations with the three host nations. Mr. Fortier was to make a speech before the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, his first major address since assuming his post in June. Trade has quadrupled between Canada and Mexico since the North American Free Trade Accord came into effect in 1994, exceeding $20 billion a year. Mr. Fortier will then meet business people and government officials in Panama and Ecuador. The minister is to visit the new international airport in Quito, a project in which a Canadian consortium took part.

Friday Jun 20, 2008 Free trade seen as focus of McCain's visit
The last time Republican Senator John McCain came to Canada, hardly anyone noticed.

Wednesday 14 May 2008 Time for free trade with Europe has come: Charest
GATINEAU, Que. - The current slowdown in the U.S. economy makes it all the more important for Canada to negotiate a free trade deal with Europe, says Quebec Premier Jean Charest.

Tuesday Mar 11, 2008 Canada's free-trade hero
Simon Reisman was a legendary Canadian free-trade negotiator with a take-no-prisoners attitude that ...Thursday 21 February 2008 OTTAWA: FREE-TRADE TALKS WITH JORDAN TO START
Canada and Jordan will start negotiations on a free-trade accord in April. Federal Trade Minister David Emerson says such an arrangement would be "a gateway to Middle Eastern and North African markets," noting as well that Jordan is a "key partner" for regional peace, security and stability. Bilateral trade last year amounted to only $76 million, Canada selling $60 million of forestry and agricultural products, machinery and equipment and Jordan selling $16 million of mostly clothing and farm products. The minister says that despite the low numbers, a trade treaty would give Canada a stronger position to vie with such competitors as the U.S. and the EU, which already have free-trade accords with Jordan.

Saturday 26 January 2008 DAVOS, SWITZERLAND: CANADA TO INK FREE TRADE DEAL WITH EFTA
It's not the European Union, but it's a start. Canada will sign a free trade agreement Saturday with four small European countries on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The agreement is with the four-member European Free Trade Association, comprising Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. None of the countries is part of the 27-member European Union. Two-way trade between Canada and the EFTA was C$11-billion in 2006.

2007

Sunday 11 November 2007 OTTAWA: COLOMBIAN JOURNALIST ADVISES AGAINST TRADE DEAL
One of Colombia's most prominent and provocative journalists, Hollman Morris, has advised Canada not to enter into a free-trade accord with his country because of its human rights abuses. Mr. Morris stopped in the capital while on a North American speaking tour sponsored by the Human Rights Watch lobby, which named him defender of the year for exposing abuses by all sides in Colombia's national conflict. His visit comes as Canada enters a fourth and possibly last round of negotiations for a tree-trade pact with Colombia and Peru. Canada's prime minister, Mr. Harper, paid a visit to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last July and warmly supported such an accord and dismissed the idea of withholding support for it because of continuing abuses in Colombia. Mr. Morris wonders whether the prime minister knows that more trade unionists are murdered in his country than anywhere else. He added that he and numerous other journalists have been threatened, as well as opposition politicians and trade unionists critical of Mr. Uribe's government. Mr. Morris says five journalists have been forced to flee the country this month alone because of threats.

Tuesday 23 October 2007 TORONTO: BIGGER INDUSTRIAL POLLUTERS SAID DOING BETTER ON ENVIRONMENT
A report says that North America's biggest polluters are doing better to reduce their toxic emissions than are smaller ones. That's the news from the Commission for Environmental Co-operation, a body created as a result of the North American Free Trade Accord between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The Commission studied 23,000 industrial facilities and found that the 50 biggest polluters, such as the nickel firm Inco, contributed about 19 per cent of industrial emissions. But its report also notes that while such large firms are generally reducing emissions, the reverse is true for smaller polluters who are reversing the progress otherwise made. The document says that for progress to be possible, "...all groups should be showing decreases."

Tuesday 09 October 2007 U.S. politicians wrapped in protectionist flag
Even most Republicans are no longer true believers in free trade
...On the Democratic side, all the leading presidential candidates are already pandering to the sentiment. U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, whose husband when he was president signed the North American free-trade agreement, now says it was a bad deal for American workers.

October 3, 2007 (Gazette) Twenty years ago today, the clock clicked down on free trade
As Brian Mulroney recounts in his memoirs, it was a "near-run thing." Other actors - notably Derek Burney, Allan Gotlieb and Michael Hart - have written of the dramatic events of Oct. 3, 1987 in their own books. As Mulroney's speechwriter, I was just a bystander but I had a privileged view from "inside the ropes," as they say in golf.

Fri 20/07/2007 BRIDGETOWN: CANADA WANTS CARIBBEAN FREE-TRADE ACCORD
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met 11 Caribbean leaders in Barbados on Thursday and proposed the start of free-trade negotiations between his country and the 15 nations of the Caribbean Community. Mr. Harper acknowledged in a speech afterwards that the region may feel some scepticism about Canada's interest in it but that there's no better long-term way to boost standards of living. The prime minister says that Caricom has itself given the example by working toward a single trading block. Mr. Harper's host, Prime Minister Owen Arthur, welcomed his guest's overture, saying that the Caribbean has been ready for free trade since 2001. He says it's time to move beyond one-way traffic of Canadian aid and preferential access on a limited number of goods to "a modern trade agreement." However, Mr. Arthur said that poorer Caribbean states aren't all able to become total free traders and that their individual circumstances must be taken into account. Mr. Harper is in Haiti on Friday on the last stop of his visit to South America and the Caribbean. Canada has promised the hemisphere's poorest country $520 million in aid between 2006 and 2001. Mr. Arthur praised Canada's generosity but says it's important to enable the Haitian people to absorb it by developing the basic institutions of a civil society.

Sunday 10 June 2007 rci OTTAWA: CANADIANS FOR FREE TRADE BUT NOT WITH CHINA
A public opinion survey indicates that Canadians are generally in favour of free trade. The poll by Decima Research shows that 58 per cent 46 per cent favour the country's present free-trade accord with the U.S. and Mexico respectively. Those two nations are Canada's partners in the North American Free Trade Area. Sixty-seven per cent are for the negotiation of a similar arrangement with the EU. But when it comes to China, only 28 per cent favour free trade, while 62 per cent are opposed. On Thursday, Canada announced the successful negotiation of a free-trade deal with the four members of the European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

8 June rci OTTAWA: CANADA CONCLUDES TRADE ACCORD IN EUROPE
Canada has concluded its first free-trade agreement with European countries. The agreement was made with the four members of the European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. As part of the deal, the four EFTA nations will eliminate their tariffs on Canadian industrial exports such as forest products, aluminum, cosmetics and motor vehicles. Canadian agricultural products will also get better market access. Last year, Canada imported more than $7.5 billion worth of EFTA imports and exported to the EFTA just over $3 billion in goods. The new agreement is Canada's first free-trade deal in six years. Canada also announced on Thursday that it has begun pursuing free-trade deals with Colombia, Peru and the Dominican Republic.

Thursday 07 June 2007 First free-trade deal in 6 years expected11
Ottawa preparing to announce successful conclusion of talks with European Free Trade Association and commence similar negotiations with Peru and Colombia

Monday, March 12, 2007 The sky that's limited
While the developing world is embracing free trade and globalization, the Canadian economy is still protected by a vast array of foreign ownership restrictions, corporate subsidies, marketing boards, provincial trade barriers and other regulations that coddle domestic companies at the expense of the consumer. In a three-part series, the Financial Post investigates why it may be time for governments to consider a radical new notion -- putting the consumer first.

Saturday 11 November 2006 OTTAWA: CANADA WEIGHING ASIAN FREE-TRADE ZONE
A high-ranking Canadian trade official says the government is considering reviving the idea of establishing a free-trade area among the 21 member states of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum. The official, who insisted upon anonymity, says the government would prefer that the "Doha Round" within the World Trade Organization aimed at liberalizing world trade succeeds, but that since the talks are suspended there's no reason not to consider other eventualities. The Doha Round collapsed in July, chiefly over the issue of farm subsidies. The official in Ottawa confirmed reports that the U.S. has asked APEC members to envision a free-trade zone. The source says the conception for such a trade bloc came from Canadian Pierre Lortie, a member of APEC's Business Advisory Council. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend the APEC summit in Vietnam Nov. 17-19. The official says he'll campaign for better rail and mass transit security to prevent bombings like those in London, Madrid and Mumbai.

Thursday 09 November 2006 TORONTO: SECURITY MEASURES CALLED THREAT TO CROSSBORDER TRADE
Members of the Canadian American Business Council say that Canada has so far benefited from its free-trade agreement with U.S. They note that the North American Free Trade agreement has generally helped Canadian companies become more competitive and has greatly expanded trade between the two countries. But at a forum in Toronto, business leaders warned that security measures in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. are making trade more difficult on both sides of the border, adding that both Ottawa and Washington need to make efforts to deal with those issues. They say companies on both sides of the border can then continue to benefit from the competition and productivity advantages brought on by free trade.

Wed 1279 page 2 Aug 2006 David T. Nicholson=s Quote ...We have benefited enormously from the Free trade agreement … Euro zone has also benefited greatly. Japan in agreement with Australia, New Zealand and other Asian governments ... We will ultimately end up with a small number of currencies, possibly the Euro, the U.S. dollar and an Asian currency

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