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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. PETTIGREW - ADDRESS TO THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - TORONTO, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PIERRE PETTIGREW, MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE, TO THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS "NOW WHAT? MULTILATERALISM AT THE CROSSROADS" TORONTO, Ontario November 12, 2003 The Webcast of this speech is available at the following URL: <a href="https://bac-lac.wayback.archive-it.org/web/20070221102956/http://webapps.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/minpub/Minister_Webcast.asp?ID=3&Language=E">http://webapps.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/minpub/Minister_Webcast.asp?ID=3&Language=E</a> Introduction I would first like to thank the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, and Keith Martin, for having me here today. Here in Canada we are just days away from an historic change in our national leadership, when Paul Martin will assume the role as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. I have known Paul for more than 20 years, and know that he is the right person to lead us forward in a time of tremendous global change. Globally the question of leadership in a complex world is also very much on our minds. We live in a truly interdependent world, and Canada is perhaps one of the countries in the world best suited to thrive in an interdependent world. First, Canada is an original political project, and building on that uniqueness allows us to benefit greatly from having one of the most open economies in the world. Canada--An Original Political Project Canada is truly original in that we long ago rejected the traditional nation state model, which bases its citizenship on a common ethnicity or language. We are a country built on immigration, and our citizens bring with them the comparative advantage of having an open outlook on the world--whether they were born in Canada or are new Canadians. Canada made a conscious choice to chart a different path from other nations of the time, a choice particularly pertinent for this era of globalization and increased mobility. At its founding, Canada was not proposed as a solely English speaking state, nor a solely French speaking state. Instead of having the traditional nation state--with one language, one religion, one legal system, and one culture--we created a country with two languages, many cultures and religions, and two legal systems, represented in both the common law and the civil code. As a result, waves of immigrants found a very different, diverse and welcoming kind of country, where they were encouraged to celebrate their own roots. These immigrants contributed to forming the original mosaic that Canada has become over the years. Our founders determined that citizenship in Canada would not be based on language or other traditional trappings of the nation state. Instead, we created a political citizenship that incites our citizens to abide by certain fundamental values, including respect for the individual, a common sense of justice, and a sense of moderation in the use of power. I believe that is the heart of liberalism. We did not strive for a melting pot in which identities are blended, but rather a mosaic. Your groups, your personalities and where you come from, were, and still are, regarded as assets to the country. This great Canadian mosaic, a non-nation state, makes for a country that in my view reflects many of our liberal values. In avoiding the traditional nation state model, we have built a country exactly the contrary. Canada offers an identity built on political citizenship rather than ethnic citizenship. By rejecting outright policies of "forced" assimilation of minorities and elimination of differences, and by encouraging people to keep the cultures and traditions from their country of origin, Canada has become rich in diversity and tolerance, a modern country which, as a result, is well-prepared for the post-modern era of polarization and globalization. Our approach to citizenship was and is different--precisely because of our history. This approach, coupled with one of the most open economies in the world, is a comparative advantage for our country (to use a term from economics). Canada--One of the Most Open Economies in the World Canada is a country of trade. We are one of the major trading nations and currently export an amount equivalent to 40 percent of our GDP. That is up from 25 percent 12 years ago. You may think that, because of globalization, everyone has achieved similar results in the past 12 years. Not at all. The United States exported the equivalent of just over 9 percent of its GDP last year, while Japan exported a little under 12 percent. So, proportionally speaking, Canada exports roughly four times as much as the United States or Japan. Moreover, the average Canadian spends twice as much on imports as does the average American. This means that of all the larger, developed economies, Canada has the one of the most open--in exports and imports. Inward and outward investment have also increased steadily over the past decade, with annual growth rates of about 10 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, we have steadily reduced our debt-to-GDP ratio, maintained balanced fiscal books and managed inflation. We have made important investments in health, education and skills development, and we have fostered solid job growth for Canadians, including the 560,000 new jobs that were added to the economy last year. Canada's Approach Let me briefly outline some of the key elements of Canada's strategy. Because trade is so important for us, we seek to expand liberalization of markets through bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements. First, this strategy involves advancing our North American agenda to ensure that this region remains the engine of both Canadian and global growth. I have spoken before of my six goals for Canada in North America. These are to: • increase our market share in the U.S.; • achieve greater flows of two-way investment, especially after this weaker year; • advance an agenda of smart regulation; • bring trade remedy practices into line with the growing integration of the North American economy; • strengthen the "smart border"; and • enhance our representation in the U.S., which is already well under way with my recent announcement of a number of new and expanded consular offices. I also want to highlight our achievements at last month's NAFTA Commission meeting in Montreal, which marked the 10th anniversary of this highly successful agreement. It is clear that NAFTA continues to provide a relevant and effective framework for stimulating trade and investment in North America. It is also clear that it has the capacity to evolve with our needs, as evidenced by our agreement in Montreal on a number of practical steps to increase trade between the parties, including through a study of how to reduce border transaction costs. We also welcomed the establishment of a North American Steel Trade Committee as an opportunity to promote more openness and integration in this vital sector. Second, Canada's strategy includes the pursuit of innovative regional trade and investment instruments, such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA], which is our top regional priority at this time. The FTAA's principal objectives of growth and development through enhanced economic integration are intended to reinforce the broader objectives of the Summit of the Americas process. Considerable progress has been made on the FTAA, but we still have a way to go. Next week, hemispheric ministers will gather in Miami, where Canada will continue to press for a comprehensive, high-quality agreement by January 2005. In addition, Canada will continue to be the leading voice in promoting transparency and accountability in the FTAA, as I will once again ask my ministerial colleagues to make public the latest version of our negotiating text. Meanwhile, we are moving on other fronts as well, with Central America and other trading partners. I'd like to mention in particular the work now under way with the European Union to design a Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement. This proposed new agreement, which we plan to start negotiating in 2004, is intended to move beyond traditional market access issues and deal with other areas on the business agenda such as investment, intra-firm transactions and technology acquisition. These regional and bilateral agreements help to open specific markets, build negotiating capacity, strengthen the appetite for further liberalization, and even blaze a trail for WTO [World Trade Organization] rules. However, only in the WTO can we obtain agricultural trade reform, improve disciplines on antidumping, subsidy, and countervailing duty actions, and ensure no one gets left behind. The WTO is the foundation of Canadian trade policy and governs our trade relations with the U.S., the European Union, Japan and emerging markets worldwide. After the WTO meeting in Cancun, some might say that we have reached a crossroads in global governance. To a degree, this is an overstatement, first, because it exaggerates the real impact of those five days in Mexico, and second, because such shifts and strains in the multilateral system have been evident for some time and felt in a variety of ways--in the UN, the WTO and elsewhere. But Cancun did make it clear that we cannot take success for granted. Fair global growth and governance are core objectives of Canadian foreign policy, and the road to get there is inevitably going to take new twists and turns. We must be watchful, adaptable and prepared, so that we do not march ourselves into a dead end. We have choices to make in how we exercise leadership and in how we build partnerships to help us stay on course. The world in 2003 is not as it was during the conception of the Bretton Woods system, from which the GATT [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade] and ultimately the WTO were born. The advances and insecurities of today are not always state-driven. The challenge is that new centres of influence have arisen that did not exist immediately after World War II--the emergence of new nation states, non-governmental organizations, businesses, civil society groups. Canada--a country that called for the creation of a trade institution in the 1990s during the Uruguay Round--is considering ways to improve not only the institution itself, but also its processes to address these challenges. In the case of new members of the WTO, we must strive to be both inclusive and effective. We recognize the need to make the WTO work more effectively for its expanding membership. We do not think that wholesale reform is needed; rather, we should be considering practical means and mechanisms to encourage convergence. Canada will also continue to champion transparency at the WTO, to ensure that the views of all interested parties can be heard and that all can better understand the work being done in Geneva. These improvements are in hopes of better including smaller countries at the table, engaging civil society and fostering transparency and reform of dispute settlement mechanisms. This is crucial given that the expectations of nation states and individuals--the demands for security, prosperity, equality and freedom--grow with each day, as they rightly should. We value our membership in the WTO, which seeks to create an open, rules-based, and transparent global trading system. It is a member-driven organization where decisions are made on the basis of consensus, ensuring that all members have a say in the rules governing the multilateral trading system. As members have different objectives and priorities within the WTO, reaching agreement can be a challenge at times. Some countries also have capacity constraints. For example, some members cannot afford full time representatives in Geneva and, therefore, handle their interests through their embassies in Brussels. Through trade-related technical assistance and capacity building, Canada and others are helping developing countries manage their participation in the negotiations and their transition to full participants in the global economy. South-South Trade and Development My critics often say that I view trade as the answer to every social ill in this interdependent world. I am not alone in saying that the social prospects for any country depend greatly on its ability to tap into foreign markets. For example, Ricardo Lagos, the President of Chile, is a man who is a dyed-in-the-wool socialist--someone who served as Salvador Allende's ambassador to Moscow (just to give you a sense of his socialist credentials). President Lagos can hardly be described as an agent of global capitalism, yet he is a fervent supporter of improved trade ties within the Americas and elsewhere. For his country, he sees trade and investment as the only venue for real and significant development. The World Bank even reported that a successful Doha Round could raise 144 million people out of poverty by 2015. It is easy to understand why. South-South trade currently makes up 40 percent of developing country exports, but these countries have among the highest tariff barriers between them! In fact, 65 percent of all tariffs paid by developing countries are paid to other developing countries. Multilateral liberalization is the best way to achieve overall reductions in tariffs. The WTO system works when member states come to the table to seek a deal, and there is no better proof of that than the case of access to medicines for countries with no domestic production capacity. WTO members--developed and developing alike--recognized the problem and came to the table reach a balanced deal. It was by no means easy--but that is the nature of negotiation. Last week, my colleagues and I tabled a bill to allow for Canadian production of medicines for least developed countries facing epidemics. Canada was the first country in the world to implement the idea. Canada can use its long-standing role as a bridge-builder and consensus-broker to reach out to the major players--established ones such as the European Union, Japan and the U.S. and emerging ones such as Brazil, China and India--to restore trust, find common ground, and work to reverse the degree of polarization apparent in Cancun. In doing this, we can also reinforce the primacy of the WTO as alternative trade agreements are pursued bilaterally and regionally. We can work to restore faith in multilateralism by forging new approaches to consensus building that will enable organizations such as the WTO to get on with their work. Other ideas may come forward as well, but the point is that we can be innovative. We, the leaders of the global community, have to demonstrate the will and the responsibility to make it happen. Conclusion The WTO is the cornerstone of our trade policy, and is well supplemented by our regional and bilateral initiatives. I believe this is the best approach to allow Canada to thrive in a truly interdependent world. Thank you. </body> </html>

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