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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. PETTIGREW - ADDRESS TO THE CANADA CHINA BUSINESS COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING - TORONTO, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 99/58 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PIERRE PETTIGREW MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE TO THE CANADA CHINA BUSINESS COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING TORONTO, Ontario November 25, 1999 It is a great honour to be here. Let me express my thanks to André Desmarais and the CCBC [Canada China Business Council] for the invitation to speak to you tonight. I am very pleased to acknowledge the presence of senior officials representing the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information Industries, as well as leaders of key regional governments, including Liaoning and Hebei. In addition, I want to acknowledge all the familiar Canadian faces in the room, many of whom are active members of the CCBC which has made a tremendous contribution to our bilateral relationship with China over for the past 25 years. China Trade Our trading relationship with China is both healthy and dynamic. Our total bilateral trade with China for 1998 was over $10 billion! It is our fourth largest trading partner -- both a reflection and a result of the increasing importance of Canada's relations with Asia-Pacific partners. Since the first wheat exports began nearly 40 years ago, we have expanded and matured the mix of products and services delivered to China. From telecom systems to pork genetics to water treatment technology, Canadian ingenuity has found a place in the Chinese marketplace. My government is firmly committed to supporting our business people as they pursue opportunities in China. My department is directly responsible for the delivery of international business development programs abroad, and our presence in China continues to be very significant. As China continues to open its markets, we are even more determined to provide the best quality information and advice to Canadian companies. In this context, I am pleased to announce the release of the China-Hong Kong Trade Action Plan 2000. This is our comprehensive strategy for Canadian commercial partnership in this key region, and a strategy which I am confident will bring benefits and success to Canada and to China. This document identifies for Canadian firms the very important opportunities, as well as some of the challenges and constraints, of the Chinese marketplace. It outlines the services available through the strong contingent of Trade Commissioners in our five missions in the region. China and the WTO A key element of our bilateral trade strategy has been to promote access for Canadian companies while supporting China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). China is clearly committed to this objective, and on a bilateral basis, we have already achieved tremendous progress towards a Canada-China agreement. I look forward to my meeting tomorrow with Minister Shi, where we will, I am sure, review this very important file. As you all know, China has completed bilateral negotiations with many of its major trading partners. It is clear that China's entry into the WTO will take place very soon. And China's entry into the WTO will be good for the WTO and good for the multilateral trading system. First of all, it will strengthen the WTO by broadening its base to include one of the world's major economies. It will also mean that China will be able to play an active and constructive role in setting new trade rules in the global trading system. I look forward to this, for there are many areas in which Canada and China can work together. For example, China has committed to not making use of agricultural export subsidies - an example that the EU could follow! This is an issue close to the hearts of our Canadian farmers. As with any healthy, dynamic and diverse relationships, there are bound to be disputes. But membership in the WTO will mean that Canada and China will have access to the transparent and objective resolution of trade disputes in the WTO. Membership in the WTO and the liberalization of trade will also help advance China's continuing economic reform process. This will benefit everyone - China, trading partners and the global economy. Membership in the WTO compels all members to operate under the principles of fairness, non-discrimination, consistency and transparency. Membership in the WTO will support China's efforts to strengthen its domestic institutions to support these principles. Canada and China have already been working closely together through CIDA [Canadian International Development Agency], to promote the building of institutions and the rule of law which underpin economic reforms. Membership in the WTO helps support and advance this process. Of course, institution-building and strengthening the rule of law is not just something we talk about in the context of China's accession. The refinement and strengthening of the rules governing the multilateral trading system are important to the WTO as a whole. As you know, next week, we are heading to Seattle to begin the next round of negotiations of the World Trade Organization. Over the next few days I will be talking more about Canadian objectives and approaches with respect to the next set of multilateral trade negotiations. With your indulgence I will share a few of these thoughts with you tonight. The Canadian Agenda in Seattle Canada's agenda on trade is to continue to press for increased access for our goods and services, and at the same time to help write agreements that will safeguard our vital social interests. We have a long history of doing so. We were a founding member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade [GATT] over 50 years ago, and we have been participants in all the major international trade discussions ever since. We have always stressed the importance of a transparent, rules-based international trading system. As a mid-sized economy, we benefit from such a system because it provides a more predictable trading environment for our businesses and gives a relatively small economy like ours a great deal of leverage against larger and stronger economies. A more liberalized trading system based on clear rules helps create jobs for Canadians. It gives our companies larger markets for their goods and enables them to obtain economies of scale. It provides us with access to cheaper inputs such as advanced technology, and gives us less expensive consumer goods. It increases competition and helps make us more productive. And, perhaps most important, it encourages business -- and indeed all Canadians -- to be more outward-looking and attuned to the challenges of an increasingly integrated and interdependent world. Values Every country will bring its own set of priorities to the table, and every country will bring its own set of values to the table. I happen to think that our values -- values that have been shaped by our history and our geography -- are unique and very different from those of other countries. These values give us strengths in the new age of globalization that other countries don't have. Globalization Of course, 'globalization' has become the buzz word of the 1990s -- and perhaps it will continue to be the buzz word of the next millennium. Borders have become more porous, and multinationals and transnationals now move in and out of countries almost as easily as they can move domestically. Globalization is not something governments can stop. But what it means is that governments now have to work on two tracks. They have to do all they can to influence international bodies to create a fair, rules-based trading system, because that is in everybody's best interests -- and that is what Seattle is all about. Secondly, they have to reinvent themselves to take on the new challenges that globalization and more open markets bring. The Limits of Markets Markets, no matter how free and how open, have their limits. They are only concerned with financial gain and profit, and they can be wrong sometimes. They don't consider the individual, or the environment, or the future, or how different countries seek to preserve their own cultural heritage. They don't really care about the long-term interests of countries, provinces, states, cities or people. That is the role of governments -- and, as I said, it is an increasingly difficult role to play as markets have become so much more powerful and borders so much more open. Humanizing Globalization As I have argued many times, we need to find ways to humanize globalization, to ensure that people can continue to participate in the economic and social development of our countries. In fact, one of the reasons that I happen to think that Canada is much better placed than other countries to handle the new diversity and new openness of the world economy. is because we are a country founded on diversity. In its historical development, Canada refused the traditional model of the nation-state in which the dominant group assimilated the minorities. We became a country based on accommodation. First, an accommodation of the French-speaking citizens and then an accommodation of all the other immigrants who followed. We have built a citizenship that is political, not ethnic or religious. And with that citizenship come the values of respect, tolerance, and openness to pluralism. I believe that we Canadians are more adaptable than many others to globalization because globalization is all about pluralism and diversity. And globalization will bring Canada and China closer together. China's WTO accession will reflect the process of globalization and open wider the doors for Canada-China trade and investment. I would like to acknowledge the instrumental role the CCBC has played in helping Canadian business pursue opportunities in China and become more competitive and outward-looking. The links we have forged in our trade with China have also helped bring China into the global trading community, and I am confident that this will be further strengthened with China's accession to the WTO. Thank you. </body> </html>

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