Failing to Walk the Talk on Trade

(National Post – Kevin Libin)

Canada third in G8 compliance, study finds

While Canada pressures Americans to keep borders open to trade – pushing back against Buy American provisions and anti-NAFTA congressmen – in the last year, this country has been as bad as any of its G8 peers in living up to free trade commitments, says a new report.

G8 leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, vowed in a joint declaration last July at Italy’s L’Aquila summit to "refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new exports restrictions or implementing World Trade Organization inconsistent measures to stimulate exports" as a key means of encouraging the global economic recovery.

Since then, Canada’s actions has earned it the lowest score it has ever received in the 10 years that report cards have been issued by the University of Toronto’s G8 Research Group, said the group’s chairwoman, Erin Fitzgerald. "Given that Canada historically performs very strongly, usually around second place, we were quite surprised this year. The low score, the relative ranking with regard to the other countries, is largely due to the trade commitment," Ms. Fitzgerald said.

France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the U.K. and the United States were all similarly penalized for raising trade barriers – mostly against Asian steel and shoes – in the regular report on how well G8 countries lived up to their commitment. Japan was the only G8 member to fully honour its L’Aquila pledge. Canada’s poor showing on trade resulted in the country slipping to third place in its compliance with G8 declarations, behind the U.S. and Japan, the lowest it has ranked on any post-summit report card. Read more here.