Trade minister meets with Ukrainian community

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This article was published 20/01/2024 (657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Canada’s minister of export promotion visited Winnipeg Friday, she came with an agenda — promote export, as her title states, to Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific region.

Manitoba’s Ukrainian community greeted her with warmth and its own agenda, one pushing for more support.

“I have great faith in Canada,” said Joanne Lewandowski, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress’ Manitoba chapter, on Friday afternoon.

She had a list of issues to raise during a meeting with Mary Ng, the federal minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development.

Lewandowski expects a surge of 7,000 Ukrainian refugees in the coming two months as Ottawa’s Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program ends.

The UCC leader planned to ask Ng for Canada’s ongoing support and settlement of Ukrainian newcomers after March, for Canada to create an inventory of initiatives to help with Ukraine’s reconstruction and for more infrastructure funding for volunteer-run community centres in Canada.

She called Ng’s visit “important.”

“She’s here to tell us, ‘We’re here to help,’” Lewandowski said. “With everything happening in other parts of the world, it seems that Ukraine is being forgotten.”

Ng said a near version of those words — “we are there, and you can count on us to be there, to stand with Ukraine” — while addressing a Ukrainian business crowd at Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre.

The minister is trying to get a modernized Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement passed in government.

She asked Manitoba Ukrainians to support the new agreement. It’s hit a snarl — the federal Conservatives previously voted against a bill implementing updates to the deal, saying the agreement’s language promotes carbon pricing.

A carbon tax has existed in Ukraine since 2011. Carbon pricing is not mandatory, Ng said Friday.

“We’re very happy to see that there’s a modernization,” said Nick Krawetz, who’s heavily involved in volunteering with Ukrainians new to Manitoba.

“It only makes sense that our cooperation and our strategic partnership with Ukraine deepens,” he continued. “That will only deepen further as Ukraine further integrates into western structures.”

Ng said she’s spoken to many Manitoba companies who want to expand into Ukraine.

She plans to host a business mission in Ukraine — showcasing Canadian companies — if the updated agreement passes.

The modernized agreement will undergo its third reading at the end of January or in February.

Canada and Ukraine’s bilateral trade reached a peak in 2021, before Russia invaded the eastern country. Canada’s merchandise exports to Ukraine had hit $219 million; imports from Ukraine reached $228 million.

After meeting with the Ukrainian Canadian Council, Ng hopped to an event the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce hosted.

There, she touted Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

“The trading relationship is something that we are doubling down on,” she told a crowd of more than 70 business professionals.

The Indo-Pacific region is comprised of 40 countries and economies in Asia and the Pacific, including Australia. Canada’s federal government projects the region will account for half of the world’s gross domestic product by 2040 and two-thirds of the global middle class by 2030.

“We want to make sure that we are well-positioned to grow into this part of the world,” Ng told her audience.

Canada is setting up more export development offices in the area and now has an Indo-Pacific trade representative. It’s opening a trade gateway in Singapore and an agri-food office in Manila, Ng said.

Canada has slated $244.6 million for expanding trade and investment in the region.

Ng encouraged Manitoba businesses to grow their operations in the Indo-Pacific. Canadian companies have a reputation of being high quality and reliable, she stated.

“They want to do business with us,” she continued. “But here’s the reality — they actually don’t know very much about us.”

Both she and Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, prodded Manitoba businesses to be louder.

“The Canadian flag is a beacon of opportunity, and people want more of it,” Remillard said. “We just need to make sure we’re getting out there.”

India and China are part of the Indo-Pacific region. Canada’s relationship with India strained after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly aired suspicions India was involved with a Sikh separatist’s killing in Canada.

Canada paused its trade mission in India last September following the allegations.

Ng said Canada is working in “bite-sized chunks” on a trade relationship with India.

“We always pursue our work and our trade relationship leading with values,” she stated. “Our long-term relationship is one that we have to keep an eye on… it’s a growing country and economy.”

Ottawa will have to balance “what’s important to Canadians from a value standpoint” while pursuing commercial interests, she told a crowd.

“It isn’t binary, it’s not one or another,” she said.

Canada launched its Indo-Pacific strategy in 2022. At the time, it touted a near $2.3 billion spend through the strategy over five years.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com