Federal trade minister David Emerson says Canada’s trade strategy is flawed because it has not been as aggressive as it should be in negotiating regional and single country free trade deals.
He told the Senate agriculture committee on June 6 that Canada has fallen behind other countries, notably the United States, in not aggressively negotiating trade deals that will provide access to specific important markets.
Instead, the country has put its emphasis on World Trade Organization talks.
“My view is simple,” Emerson said. “I have been in this job for 31/2 months and one thing I have concluded is that as one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, we have not been as strategic and aggressive as we need to be in forging new trade agreements.”
He said there are reasons for this.
“We have sensitive sectors that seem to pop up and create public disfavour as soon as we start to talk about new trade arrangements. That seems inevitable.”
