Canada Misses its Chance to Join Major Pacific Free-Trade Deal

(John Ibbitson — Globe & Mail)

Ottawa refused to join the pact in 2006, now told it’s too late

Canada has been shut out of a potentially historic Pacific free trade agreement involving the United States and seven other countries.

When asked in 2006 to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations that only recently got under way in Australia, the Harper government refused, largely to protect the Quebec and Ontario dairy industry from foreign competition. When Canada changed its mind earlier this year and asked to join, we were told it was too late, according to several sources.

As a result, this country could miss out on being part of a new free trade zone that would encompass 470 million people with a combined GDP of more than $16-trillion.

“It is foolish to hamstring our participation in these negotiations” just to protect the dairy industry, said Jayson Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association. Read more here.