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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Status quo on trade policy not an option
We have entered a new age of anxiety in Canada-U.S. relations.
Much of it is the byproduct of made-in-America fiscal and political instability. The recurring psychodrama, starring the White House and Congress, over how to slay the debt monster is not just stress-inducing for the U.S. intelligentsia. The Canadian one is equally unnerved.
Unless the "sequestration" crisis is resolved quickly, the effects of the U.S. government implementing $85 billion in automatic cuts will become self-evident.
For Canadians specifically, the deep slashing and resulting manpower scarcity could mean a clogged border, delayed flights and choked-off business opportunities.
Meanwhile, there are palpable fears the enviro-conscious Obama administration might soon nix the Keystone pipeline project, stifling the development of the oilsands.
Denying Alberta oil an outlet to the Gulf of Mexico would deal an economic blow not just to that province, but to all Canadians, whose prosperity is inextricably linked to the land-locked resource.
In short, Canadian exposure to American risk factors remains unacceptably high -- the U.S. is still the destination for 75 per cent of our exports -- 40 years after Pierre Trudeau first sought to address this vulnerability.
It was in 1972 that he unveiled his Third Option policy, which emphasized the importance of broadening trade links with Asia and Europe, as opposed to sticking with the status quo or seeking further integration with the U.S.
In fact, history took the latter course. The Mulroney Tories pursued a free-trade deal with the U.S. in the wake of a 1985 report by a royal commission on the economy headed by former Liberal cabinet minister Donald S. Macdonald. The Third Option vision petered out, in no small part because it was ill-adapted to the realities of the day.
Since then, however, the Cold War universe has ended, a global marketplace has emerged and new trade opportunities now abound in places like Latin America, India, China and Turkey.
Nothing can replace the U.S. as our mainstay market and nothing should distract us from preserving and enhancing access to our No. 1 customer base through harmonization.
At the same time, it has never been more urgent, or possible, to diversify our portfolio -- by courting Brazil and Mexico, concluding a free-trade agreement with the EU and building pipelines to the east and west coasts, which would allow us to export bitumen overseas.
The status quo is no longer an option, but a "second prong" policy is a national necessity.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 11, 2013 A6
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