MR. KILGOUR - ADDRESS TO THE COLLOQUIUM ONCANADA WITHIN THE CONTINENTALIZATION OF THE AMERICAS: BALANCE AND PERSPECTIVESUNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL - MONTREAL, QUEBEC
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NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY
THE HONOURABLE DAVID KILGOUR
SECRETARY OF STATE (LATIN AMERICA AND AFRICA)
TO THE COLLOQUIUM ON
CANADA WITHIN THE CONTINENTALIZATION OF
THE AMERICAS: BALANCE AND PERSPECTIVES
UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL
MONTREAL, Quebec
October 16, 1997
This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Good afternoon:
To begin, I would like to congratulate the Chaire Téléglobe, Raould Dandurand, en
études stratégiques et diplomatiques, for organizing this colloquium on "La
continentalisation des Amériques: la place du Canada?" My remarks will focus on
the growing Canadian engagement within the hemisphere and the main challenges I
see arising from it.
I came back recently from my first visit to Chile as Secretary of State for Latin
America. This was an opportunity for me to see a country that is turning the
corner and is now receiving major investor interest. I witnessed impoverished
people who now have some tools to try to improve their lives, from microcredit to
the new government pension funds for all.
Chile is already a major bilateral trading partner for Canada, and part of our
four-way alliance of the "four amigos." What struck me in Santiago, where I
attended the opening of the GasAndes project, headed by Nova Corporation, was the
fit between a very good business deal and an important environmental breakthrough
for the residents of that city, who are choking on urban smog. The week before we
arrived, Luciano Pavarotti had called off a concert because the air was too
polluted for him to perform. When I viewed the city from a local vantage point,
the heavy choking inversion was visible and the health authorities were talking
about the long-term impact on citizens, particularly the elderly and children.
Canadian technology, Canadian management and Canadian governmental support made
the GasAndes project happen. It is something to be proud of, and it will forge a
friendship that reaches well beyond those directly involved in the consortium.
Chile is but one illustration of how much the region has changed, as has Canada's
own place in the Western Hemisphere.
Until recently, it is fair to say that relations among the countries of the
Americas, including Canada, were characterized by a lack of coherence and
sustainability. It is true that Canada's relations with the Caribbean date from
the 17th century, and that the United States has always loomed large in our
collective consciousness -- and indeed in our development as a nation.
Nevertheless, our traditional links with Europe tended for many years to obscure
the determining role played by geography and increasingly by history in Canada's
position vis à vis its own hemisphere. Canada's engagement in the region was
sporadic, frequently conceived as a complement or a counterbalance to U.S.
policies, and coloured to a substantial degree by our reluctance to wade more
deeply into an area often characterized by political turmoil and economic
volatility.
As the decade of the 1980s ended, it became increasingly clear that a fundamental
and possibly irreversible transformation was taking place in Latin America.
Economic reform based on macro-economic stability and market-oriented measures was
adopted by practically all the countries in the region. Democratically elected
governments became the rule. Internal armed conflict, which had marked most of
Latin America after 1960, gave way to peace processes, often, as in the case of
Central America, with international -- including Canadian -- participation. As
military governments disappeared, gross and systematic violations of human rights
also became less of a defining feature. Civilian governments became more sensitive
toward deficiencies in their human rights record.
Globalization was becoming a fact, and the introduction of reforms by our
hemispheric neighbours reflected the consciousness that they needed to adapt their
societies. Canada, as the second-largest economy in the region, with a long and
deeply ingrained democratic tradition, also became aware that it possessed many of
the tools, much of the expertise and a high level of credibility which could be
used to assist our region in effecting this transformation.
This decade has witnessed unprecedented progress in Canadian involvement with the
Americas. In 1990 we joined the Organization of American States [OAS], a clear
signal of our desire to play a more active role in hemispheric issues and to
contribute towards the revitalization of regional inter-governmental institutions.
In the early 1990s, Canada negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement with
the United States and Mexico, the first regional trade agreement in the world
involving developing and developed countries. During the same period, we extended
our resident diplomatic representation to practically all the countries of the
region. In 1994, Prime Minister Chrétien participated in the Miami Summit of the
Americas, where leaders of 34 democratically elected countries agreed on a
partnership for development and prosperity, founded on a commitment to democratic
practices, economic integration and social justice. This represented an
unprecedented commitment to working together on these fundamental issues.
In 1995, the Canadian government in its Foreign Policy Statement identified Latin
America as one region where our geographic location gives us an important
advantage. This year, Canada and Chile concluded a free trade agreement. Last
month, the Quebec National Assembly, with the support of the Parliament and
Government of Canada, hosted a first-ever Parliamentary Conference of the
Americas, which addressed the process of economic integration and recognized the
essential role of parliamentarians in it.
At that conference, Prime Minister Chrétien announced the January 1998 visit of
Team Canada to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. In April, the Prime Minister
will participate in the Second Summit of the Americas in Santiago, where leaders
are expected to launch negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA].
In 1999, the Pan American Games will be held in Winnipeg. And in 2000, to
celebrate the 10th anniversary of our membership, Canada will host the OAS General
Assembly.
Canadian involvement in the hemisphere goes well beyond participation in
conferences and events. Over the past four years, Canadian exports to the region
increased from $2.6 billion to $5 billion; this is more than our exports to France
and Germany combined. Exports to Brazil are four times those to India. Canadian
investment in the region has also increased, from $6 billion to $15 billion. A
growing number of Quebec companies, including Alcan, Bombardier, Bell Canada, SR
Telecom, Harris Farinon, Group Saint Mobile and Les Camions Waltek, to name but a
few, are active in the region. Despite this -- and the fact that Canada enjoys
comparative advantages in sectors such as resource exploitation, information
technology and infrastructure development -- our share of the market remains at
less than 3 per cent. We have just scratched the surface.
Our economic ties have been aided by the growing number of Canadians, now in the
hundreds of thousands, originating from every country in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Their presence has enriched our own culture, forged unbreakable bonds
and sensitized our country to the promise and the richness of the Americas.
Canada is well respected in the region. We have capitalized on our reservoir of
political goodwill to obtain solid Latin American and Caribbean support on such
initiatives as the banning of anti-personnel landmines, the extension of the UN
mandate in Haiti, opposition to legislation with extraterritorial application,
such as the Helms-Burton law, and adoption of a multilateral anti-drug strategy.
We have been able to play an active role as a bridge-builder in the process to
launch negotiations for an FTAA.
Our development assistance programs contribute $800 million yearly to the region
and aim at fostering political, economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Our programs place particular importance on traditionally marginalized groups,
such as women and Indigenous peoples, in recognition that their integration into
the full economic life of a country is an important prerequisite for development
and preservation of democracy and security.
In short, Canada has built a multifaceted and influential presence in the
hemisphere in recent years, which we intend to use in shaping the changes that are
taking place so that they reflect our values. This will entail, in my view, three
major challenges:
1) ensuring that economic integration leads to prosperity with equity, thus aiding
in the enhancement and preservation of democracy;
2) strengthening democratic institutions and practices and enshrining the concept
of sustainable development in the region; and
3) promoting human security, particularly for the most vulnerable groups of
society, as a key concept in policy-making in the hemisphere.
Let's examine how Canada is addressing these challenges.
Prosperity with Equity
As the theme of this conference clearly illustrates, economic integration is a
predominant trend in the region, buttressed by growing evidence of its beneficial
net impact on job creation and income levels. As a government, we are firm
believers in establishing rules-based trade regimes to foster an open and
predictable free-trading environment as a crucial element in enhancing prosperity,
including our own. It is the reason why Canada is a strong supporter of an FTAA.
The evidence is less conclusive on whether integration necessarily leads to the
narrowing of income disparities. This is a particularly serious issue in most of
this hemisphere, where incomes are one of the most unequally distributed in the
world. This in turn is a most formidable challenge to the very existence of
democratic governments in the region for the foreseeable future. As a firm
believer in the need to ensure that the benefits of prosperity are widely shared,
Canada continues to advocate poverty reduction as a key component of international
co-operation activities in the region, and to share our expertise in socially
oriented governance, thus contributing to building a hemisphere that shares some
of our most fundamental values. In doing so, we will also help in the preservation
of democracy.
Democracy and Sustainable Development
One of the first initiatives that Canada advanced on joining the OAS was a
proposal to create a Unit for the Promotion of Democracy [UPD], a unique mechanism
for the enhancement of democratic culture and practices across the hemisphere. The
universal acceptance that the UPD enjoys today among all OAS member states, proves
that democracy in the hemisphere is now considered as more than an exclusively
domestic issue. This point was reinforced by the OAS in 1991, when member states
passed resolution 1080, which recognized that the interruption of the democratic
order in a country was a matter of regional concern that could lead to
international action. Canada has also encouraged the development of a democratic
culture and a pluralist civil society in its bilateral relations. Our Canadian
International Development Agency [CIDA] funds a wide range of projects, such as
peace and reconciliation initiatives, legal aid, human rights education, the
strengthening of parliamentary institutions, and the establishment of legal and
institutional frameworks for human rights (encompassing the rights of women,
children and Indigenous peoples).
Canada's support for democracy has been particularly evident in the cases of
Guatemala and Haiti, as well as Cuba. In Guatemala, we are assisting civil society
to take an active role in shaping the future of their country. Since 1995,
civilian police officers from municipal forces in Laval, Quebec, and Hamilton,
Ontario, have served with distinction as human rights monitors in MINUGUA, the
United Nations Mission in Guatemala. Earlier this year 15 Canadian military
officers from all parts of the country took part in MINUGUA's task of supervising
the demobilization of the Guatemalan guerillas. Last April, Canada was the first
country to provide financial support to the start-up of Guatemala's "Truth
Commission." In Haiti, Canada has been actively involved in training the new
police force as well as providing support for strengthening the judiciary. Canada
also believes that engagement will produce more progress in Cuba than will
isolation and formal conditionality.
Canada has also been a leader in advancing the concept of sustainable development
and of integrating economic, social and environmental objectives. This Canadian
approach was reflected in the Bolivia Summit on Sustainable Development, where
governments agreed on 65 initiatives in five areas: health and education;
sustainable agriculture and forests; sustainable cities and communities; water
resources and coastal areas; and energy and minerals.
Human Security
As my colleague the Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, our Minister of Foreign Affairs
noted in his recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly, the concept of
human security means tackling other severe menaces besides the scourge of war.
Threats such as poverty, human rights violations, crime and terrorism, and
depletion or pollution of natural resources are far too common virtually
everywhere. Canada has much intellectual and practical leadership to offer in
addressing, in innovative ways, issues that cut across traditional boundaries.
Examples include the landmines ban campaign, identifying and addressing the root
causes of conflict, and improving our ability to respond to crises when we cannot
prevent them.
One of the most distressing developments in the region in recent years has been
the explosion of criminal violence, particularly among urban populations. This has
a deeply destabilizing effect on democratic governments and leads to increased
violations of human rights by police forces. Reducing the level of violence, and
the impact of organized crime, both of which affect the quality of life of many
peoples and threatens democracy in our hemisphere and elsewhere, will be another
key challenge. Canada has much to offer in this field in areas such as municipal
government and policing. The negotiation of a convention to control the illicit
international traffic in firearms, now being undertaken under OAS auspices, is an
interesting illustration of regional action in the field of human security. Once
again, Canada took the lead in trying to ensure that the resulting instrument be
effective as well as enforceable.
The new era of hemispheric co-operation exemplified by the revitalization of
intergovernmental institutions such as the OAS, and the flourishing of the Summit
of the Americas process, which is taking place in this decade, provides Canadians
with an unprecedented opportunity to assist in addressing these three main
challenges, not only bilaterally, but increasingly, multilaterally.
Canada, a Country of the Americas
Canada is a country of the Americas. This is a fact created by geography and now
confirmed by history. Our place in this hemisphere will not be that different from
that which we occupy elsewhere in the world: a prosperous, democratic society; an
example of how diversity and tolerance can be the source of unity, rather than
division; a respected and influential nation, which leads by example rather than
coercion. But there is a big difference: because of our rich linguistic and
cultural heritage, our economic importance, and our geographic proximity, here we
have a much greater possibility to build a common value system based on a shared
vision in our hemisphere. In doing so, we will also be contributing to the
betterment of our own society.