Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Canada needs bigger trade deals, says economic group

OTTAWA—The Harper government gets an A for effort on expanding trade globally but a much lower grade on actual successes, according to a new report by a high-powered economic group.

The project organized by Carleton University in Ottawa says Canadians have for too long relied on a “culture of comfort” in easy dependence on trade with the United States.

But exports to the U.S., which accounted for 87 per cent of Canadian sales abroad in 2000, declined to 75 per cent in 2010, the group says. “Depending almost exclusively on domestic and U.S. markets for future prosperity is not sustainable,” states the report, “Winning in a Changing World.”

It was put together from national consultations by well-known business, academic and government figures, including project co-chairs Derek Burney, Thomas d’Aquino, Len Edwards and Fen Hampson.

Canada is involved in dozens of free-trade talks or pre-negotiation studies, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper often notes approvingly. But the Carleton study concludes Ottawa should prioritize its negotiations to take advantage of possible trade-liberalization rules with countries that are big enough to provide an economic jolt to Canada.

“The federal government must align the focus of its trade negotiations with market potential,” the report says. “It has not yet managed to conclude an agreement with a single high-growth Asian country.

“Recent agreements promise little commercial value,” the study adds. For example, a year’s worth of export value from a recently completed free-trade pact with Honduras “is equal to 71 minutes of Canada’s daily exports to the United States.”

“There’s been a tendency to go after low-hanging fruit,” Hampson, director of Carleton’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, told reporters.

The group, which met privately for an hour with Harper earlier Tuesday, said they urged him to beef up Canada’s spending on trade negotiating teams to maximize the country’s ability to hammer out worthwhile free-trade deals.

The group also said there is widespread demand among business and provincial governments for Ottawa to provide key leadership to pursue a more aggressive trade strategy.

“What is missing is a determined effort to leverage our strengths and to reshape Canadian policies and priorities to serve our national interest,” the report said.

In general, the group praised the trade policies of the Harper government, which last week announced Canada’s admission to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade liberalization talks involving the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Chile and other Pacific Rim countries.

Future prosperity in Canada clearly hinges on obtaining trade access to emerging countries, the report says. By 2050, it says, emerging markets will be home to 60 per cent of the world’s wealth and 70 per cent of world trade (with less than 8 per cent of global commerce taking place in North America).

Among the group’s recommendations:

 • More deliberate trade and investment strategies that harness Canada’s comparative economic and trade advantages with select emerging markets.

 • A new, focused partnership among all levels of government and the private sector to expand trade beyond the U.S.

 • Reaching international agreements that are tailored to the specific opportunities and risks of doing business in different emerging markets, where conventional trade and investment rules may be inadequate.

 • A more predictable investment regime in Canada coupled with the development of Canadian businesses better able to compete in the global economy.

Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Les Whittington

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