Canada Risks Being Shut Out of Pacific Trade Pact, New Zealand PM Warns

(John Ibbitson — Globe & Mail)

Ottawa’s insistence on protecting dairy industry with tariffs at issue

New Zealand’s Prime Minister is warning that unless Canada abandons its protections for the dairy industry, it will not be allowed to join a landmark trade agreement being negotiated among Pacific nations.

Canada has no free trade agreements anywhere in Asia, and a failure to sign on to an expanded Trans-Pacific Partnership would leave this country shut out of the Asia-Pacific region, which is widely viewed as the engine of economic growth in the 21st century.

John Key, who was in Ottawa on Wednesday for talks and dinner with Stephen Harper, said he told the Prime Minister that he hoped Canada would ultimately join the TPP, as it is commonly called.

But “I made it clear, from New Zealand’s point of view, we would want to engage in flexible and comprehensive agreements,” he maintained.

When asked whether any nation would be permitted to join the agreement while carving out protections for its dairy industry, he replied: “That is not our intention. No.” Read more here.