Free Trade's Haves and Have-Nots

Trade agreements should be one part of economic policy; fighting inequality should be another.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast’s recent speech to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has drawn criticism for the partisan vitriol it directed toward the NDP. And so it should. Cabinet ministers represent all Canadians, and official speeches on the future of Canada’s international trade policy are not the place to divide and conquer.

However, Fast’s basic argument – that lower trade barriers promote economic growth – is utterly reasonable. And the standard opposition response – that Canadian workers must be protected from the evils of big business – leaves much to be desired. But economic growth alone is not enough to make Canadians prosperous, and it is here that Fast’s attack on New Democrats masks an incompleteness in the Conservative government’s approach to international trade.

It has been more than 20 years since Canada first signed a free-trade agreement with the United States, and few will deny that the Canadian economy has been better for it. In spite of the recent recession, on the whole Canadians are significantly wealthier than they were two decades ago.

But the increased prosperity has not reached everyone. The gap between the rich and the poor in Canada has grown steadily. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development recently reported that, among its members, only Germany has seen a greater increase in the overall inequality of household earnings over the last decade and a half.

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Source: The Mark