Politics Are Slamming Our Trade Doors Shut

(Globe & Mail – Marcus Gee)

Everyone agrees that a retreat into trade protectionism after the Great Crash of 1929 helped bring on the Great Depression. Everyone agrees it would be disastrous to repeat that mistake today.

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Peru last weekend, U.S. President George W. Bush reminded other leaders that “global protectionism is a path to global ruin.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed, arguing that lowering trade barriers is a key to getting the global economy moving again. “The world is entering an economic period unlike, and potentially as dangerous as, anything we have faced since 1929,” Mr. Harper said. “Now is the time for opening doors, not erecting walls.”

Fine sentiments, but what, exactly, is he prepared to do about it?

Ottawa has been touting its new free-trade deal with Colombia as an example of its free-trading credentials. Colombia? Come on. Canada’s two-way trade with Colombia amounts to $1.14-billion, about a third of our trade with Ohio in auto parts alone. We buy bananas, coffee and fuel from Colombia. They buy our lentils, wheat, beef and machinery. That’s not going to restart our engine. Nor is a recent trade deal with Peru.

The real prizes to be had in free trade lie not to the south in Latin America, but to the west across the Pacific in Asia. In negotiating deals there, Canada has been painfully slow off the mark. Read the rest here.