For a government that repeatedly ranks trade and expanded exports as key economic policy priorities, the job of being Stephen Harper’s trade minister seems surprisingly unstable.
With the Jan. 19 cabinet shuffle, urban-rural Ontario minister Peter Van Loan became the third trade minister in just four years of Conservative government.
Arrival of this neophyte lawyer, with no obvious background in trade, comes at a time when trade issues are heating up, for better or for worse.
In Geneva, negotiators have been ordered to step up the pace and intensity of talks to try to salvage the current World Trade Organization negotiation before it becomes an international laughingstock.
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In Brussels last week, Canada and the European Union concluded the second round of a bilateral negotiation for a free trade deal that supporters are hailing as the most significant bilateral trade talks since Canada-U.S. negotiations more than two decades ago. Negotiators, and so far governments on both sides of the Atlantic, have been aggressive in promising and promoting a comprehensive agreement within a couple of years.
And when Parliament resumes March 3, Van Loan will reintroduce trade legislation including the stalled Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Act.
Meantime, the 46-year-old lawyer noted for his grim visage and dour image will be on a steep learning curve over the next month.
Political critics mutter that the revolving door leaves Canada’s trade policy devoid of political leadership.
Kathleen Sullivan, executive director of the pro-trade lobby Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, doesn’t see it that way. Government commitment makes her optimistic.
“The Harper government from the top down has made it clear trade is a commitment and the minister reflects government policy whoever it is,” she said Jan. 25, a day after returning to Ottawa from monitoring Canada-EU talks in Brussels. “And the ministers, no matter how long they are there, have been strong ministers.”
Indeed they have.
The first Harper trade minister, David Emerson, carried the political baggage of being a former Liberal cabinet minister who defected to the Conservatives.
He was followed by Stockwell Day, once a leadership rival to Harper but in government a senior, trusted and competent minister.
Van Loan does not have that standing but he has had senior cabinet positions and as government House leader and public security minister, became the uncompromising face of sharp Tory partisanship and the tough-on-crime agenda.
The trade minister’s job requires different skills: accommodation, congeniality and social skills as well as toughness when world ministers meet to negotiate trade deals that could aggrieve sensitive domestic industries. At ministerial trade negotiating sessions, being a bully doesn’t cut it unless you happen to be one of the biggest dogs in a dead-end alley.
Canada isn’t.
Mastering these gentler negotiating skills, as much as the detail of trade negotiations, will be a major part of Van Loan’s learning curve.
This year will be his test.
