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Spring
2017
Grains
West
6
Trade-off
WITH TPP DEAD, BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS ARE CANADA’S LOGICAL NEXT STEP
A year ago, if anyone asked me
whom I thought would win the 2016 U.S.
presidential election and whether the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would
receive the green light from each of its
12 signatories, I’d be hard pressed to say
anything other than “Clinton” and “yes.”
Well, a lot can change in a year, can’t
it? Today, Donald Trump governs the U.S.
and his first executive order was to kill
the TPP. May I have a mulligan, please?
Next up on the to-do list for America’s
new president is renegotiating the terms
of what he has called “the worst trade deal
maybe ever signed anywhere”: NAFTA, or
the North American Free Trade Agree-
ment, negotiated by Brian Mulroney,
George H.W. Bush and Carlos Salinas.
After fewer than 100 days of the new
Republican president, Canada has been
forced into a precarious position. What
happened to agriculture’s bright, shiny
TPP deal? And if NAFTA is up for rene-
gotiation, is any longstanding agreement
between our two nations sacred? Initial-
ly, nobody thought Trump was serious,
but his actions during his first months
in office have proven that no ill-advised
campaign promise is too outlandish for his
administration to pursue.
Every single day, Canada and the U.S.
trade about $1 billion in goods back and
forth across our shared border. That
trade is pivotal to our national economy.
If we lose any sizable portion of that
export market, we’ll be stuck with a
supply glut of countless products that will
need to find a home elsewhere. We’re an
export-driven nation—this is no secret.
We need to stop waiting around for other
countries to dictate our trade fortunes,
merely hoping that when the dust settles
we won’t be much worse off than we are
right now.
With the TPP dead in the water, it’s
clear that the deal’s signatories—Cana-
da included—are mourning the loss of
promised access to Japan’s uber-premium
export market. Losing out on market ac-
cess in Vietnam, a nation that has grown
by more than 15 million people since
the turn of the millennium to a total
population of 95 million, also stings. If
there is an appetite for TPP to continue
without the U.S., Canada should definite-
ly jump at the chance to continue what
were advanced discussions. Much of the
framework is already in place and Cana-
da wouldn’t have to start from scratch to
secure broad market access.
Canada can’t afford to do nothing
while the international trade environ-
ment continues to shift all around us. It’s
time to take our trade destiny into our
own hands so we can protect ourselves
against any further actions from our
southern neighbour that might harm our
interests at home and abroad.
Canada must immediately begin
exploring bilateral trade agreements with
our international friends, new and old.
Why not start with Japan? It’s a country
that’s already looking to make deals, so
we must continue to aggressively pursue
opportunities in this geographically small,
but extremely large and lucrative market.
With a population of 127 million, Japan’s
receipts total $4 billion in Canadian
agri-food exports, about 10 per cent of our
overall total. It is our largest canola seed
market and our second-largest market
for malt barley and pork. We ship healthy
amounts of wheat, beef, pulses and sugar
to Japan as well.
By TREVOR BACQUE
EDITOR’S
MESSAGE
Canada can’t afford to do
nothing while the international
trade environment continues to
shift all around us.