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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. GRAHAM - ADDRESS TO THE CANADA EUROPE ROUND TABLE FOR BUSINESS - 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 BILL GRAHAM, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TO THE CANADA EUROPE ROUND TABLE FOR BUSINESS TORONTO, Ontario November 21, 2003 As a local Torontonian, I welcome you, especially those of you who have come here from Europe. I know that there is a sense of confidence here in this city and, indeed, across Canada these days because we have been getting our economic fundamentals right over the past decade. In particular, our numbers on job creation and public finances are terrific. I know that many Europeans would love to have similar ones. We have been challenged by some severe economic shocks this year: by SARS and the blackout here in Toronto, and by BSE, hurricanes and forest fires elsewhere in Canada. Yet, despite these shocks, the nation's books remain balanced, and our economy is poised to take advantage of the global economic recovery expected during the next few months. We have now had six consecutive surpluses, a record unmatched over the past half-century. We have paid down the debt by $52.3 billion, and this is paying off by saving us more than $3 billion annually in interest payments, which we are using to invest in other economic and social priorities. What is more, our per-capita gross domestic product, the single best measure of our standard of living, has grown by 20 percent over the last six years. One of the most striking and important accomplishments here in Canada in recent years has been the spreading of a new culture of excellence across our country. This is, in part, a result of our commitment to research. As a government, we have invested $13 billion in research and innovation, turning Canadian universities and research centres into world leaders in the pursuit of knowledge, new ideas and the development of cutting-edge technology. This new emphasis on excellence is exemplified by the creation of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, which is strengthening our universities, colleges and research hospitals to carry out world-class research and technological development. We have also created 2,000 new Canada Research Chairs to enable our universities to attract and retain the most highly qualified talent. And through our Networks of Centres of Excellence, government is working with industry and universities to turn Canadian research and entrepreneurship into economic and social benefits for Canadians. These developments are transforming the performance of academic and business research nationwide. We can now see science clusters across the country, from biotech in Montreal and genomes in Winnipeg, to photonics in Ottawa, fuel cells in Vancouver and high-tech energy research in Calgary. All of this means that European businesses looking to enter science-based activity in North America know that choosing Canada for science is good for business as well. This point brings me to the wider set of issues I would like to talk to you about today: the growing range of ties between Canada and Europe; the place of these ties within a historic and very contemporary transatlantic community; and the importance of these ties in supporting the efforts of all of our countries to tackle the problems of an interdependent world. These are large topics, to be sure, but they bear directly on the day-to-day business of all of you in this room, and on my own job too, for that matter. Let me begin very close to home, with the perspective of our citizens. Last winter and spring, I conducted a nationwide public consultation on the direction of Canadian foreign policy. During my town hall meetings across the country, I heard citizens reflecting on who we are as a nation and what we should stand for in the world. Above all, Canadians know that we are North Americans and that, for many reasons, the United States is our closest and most important ally. Geography dictates our closeness. Through the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), our countries are partners in the defence of North America. Our civilian authorities, our police and others work closely together on our security--not only against terrorism, but also against crime and other threats to our populations. We act as joint stewards of our air, water and wildlife, all of which cross our border, along with millions of our fellow citizens. Since the terrible events of September 11, of course, our alliance with the U.S. has deepened through our joint response to the threat of terrorism. On the domestic front, our security relationship is expanding into new areas, such as a binational planning group looking at ways of coordinating our countries' responses to terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other transborder threats. Through our Smart Border Action Plan, we are improving the safe and efficient flow of people and goods between our two countries. When we look at our economic relationship, we are clearly each other's most important trading partner. Eighty-two percent of our exports go to the U.S. and, in turn, the U.S. sells over $280 billion worth of goods and services to Canada each year. This means that we absorb a quarter of all U.S. exports, more than any other country. In fact, the U.S. sells more to Canada than to the entire European Union. Investment is another huge part of our economic relationship, as is our increasing interdependence in matters of energy. Beyond trade and economics, our people are deeply intertwined. We marry one another, attend each other's universities, vacation in each other's countries, play on the same sports teams and entertain one another as actors, musicians and authors. We share bedrock commitments to many of the same values. Canadians and Americans appreciate and treasure the amazingly diverse immigrant societies in which we live. Both of our countries embrace democracy, good governance and respect for human rights. This means that, naturally, we want much the same things for our own societies, and we share a common vision of a world in which we can help bring those benefits of open and democratic societies to others. Why do I highlight Canada-U.S. relations in a group that is here to talk about Europe? Here I want to make two points. I believe strongly--and I am sure that the people in this room will support me when talking to our European colleagues--that our access to the U.S. market is secure largely because of the depth of our relationship, whether in matters of energy, people or anything else. Take the fact, for example, that Canada is the only country presently exempt from the need for entry-exit permits that will come into force in the U.S. Why did that come about? It came about because of the nature of those deep relationships I have just talked about. It came about because we have a Canada-U.S. Parliamentary Association that is one of the most effective in the world. We meet regularly with our colleagues in the U.S. and can reach right into Congress and explain things to people--the guys from Michigan, the northern U.S., Oregon and Washington. They know what it means to their economies if they interfere with this flow of goods and people across the border. I have heard many Europeans say, "Why go to Canada? Go to the States." But if you think about what we are talking about here, about science and technology and what Canada has to offer in many other ways, that the border between the two countries is open, and I am confident that it is going to remain open. Of course, the core values that we share with the U.S. also have roots in Europe and continue to thrive there. I have to say that, when I did my foreign policy dialogue, which I spoke of earlier, Canadians talked to me not only about the nature of Canada-U.S. relations, but also about the fact that, in many ways, Canada reflects European values as a society. When you think of our medicare system and many other features of Canadian society, there is a resemblance to many of the aspects of European culture and preoccupations. As members of North America, Canada and the U.S. are part of a centuries-old transatlantic community of shared values, interests and goals for the world. How we go about pursuing these goals sometimes differs, in keeping with our countries' different social attitudes and relative positions in the world. The U.S. carries the awesome responsibilities of the world's unique superpower. Canada and Western European countries are powers of a different order, and that fact makes us natural allies in much of what we do. Our efforts complement each other and, together, Canada and Europe can complement the U.S. in our transatlantic efforts to build a better world. We know that, more than ever, we are all bound together, across the Atlantic and around the world, in a struggle against truly global problems. There are very few dangers that stop at national borders any more--not infectious diseases, or environmental degradation, or terrorism or economic instability. Look at Africa, where 30 million people are HIV-positive; only 25,000 of them currently have access to anti-retroviral drugs. This means that a great majority of those people will die, leaving 40 million orphans who will be not only without parents, but also without teachers, nurses and police. That is a blueprint for a continent of failed states, which can be as dangerous for security as rogue states. Think of the further suffering if the epidemic reaches similar proportions in countries such as China, India and Russia. Consider what this could mean for the global economic system and global security. What all of this interdependence means is that we have no choice but to address these problems of global scope. Kofi Annan has phrased it this way: "Either we help the outsiders in a globalized world out of a sense of moral obligation and enlightened self-interest, or we will find ourselves compelled to do so tomorrow, when their problems become our problems, in a world without walls." And as Bono pointed out at the Liberal leadership convention, prevention in such matters is far less costly than a cure. Interdependence means that the countries of the world have no choice but to work together to tackle problems that none of us can solve on our own. As you know, the question of effective multilateral cooperation has been much on the minds of everyone in the past year. The largest and historically most important multilateral organization we have, the United Nations, has been severely tested. The UN remains a unique and indispensable forum for global action, but it is in need of significant reform, and the difficulties there are immense. In order to address these deficiencies, we are going to have to work with many other states with whom we can form productive partnerships. Foremost among those are the ones we in Canada share with Europeans, by virtue of our history, global role and, of course, shared values and interests. These have led us to join together to work on global warming through the Kyoto Accord; to strive toward a global ban on anti-personnel mines; and to establish an International Criminal Court to punish and deter the worst kinds of crimes against humanity. Our common values and goals also guided us in working through the G8 to establish NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Through this arrangement, Canada, the U.S. and Europe are working with African countries to alleviate poverty and improve governance on that continent. Through La Francophonie, Canada is working with Europeans and others to promote the values of democracy, human rights and good governance among the developing country members. And through the Commonwealth, Canada and the United Kingdom are working with other countries to find a solution to Robert Mugabe's misrule in Zimbabwe. Looking toward new kinds of multilateralism, we see a promising bridge between North and South emerging through the Human Security Network, a group of 13 like-minded countries that includes Austria, Canada, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and other countries from every continent, all committed to issues bearing on the security of individuals. Innovation also promises to emerge from the G20, a group that includes G8 countries and major regional powers in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our next prime minister, Paul Martin, was instrumental in establishing this group a few years ago, when he was our finance minister, as a way of addressing global financial crises. Today, it is helping emerging economies stay on course. There is every reason to think that expanding beyond the financial sphere into other areas of global problem solving will allow the G20 to deliver even broader kinds of results. In these and many other ways, we all have a great deal of work to do to make a safer and more prosperous world for all of us. Together, Canadians and Europeans will be tested in their ingenuity and commitment over the decades to come. Our common political global goals will continue to ensure that our businesses are active in one another's markets as well, because politics and business do come together when we are trying to open doors for business. And with respect to all of these issues that I have just been talking to you about--whether multilateralism, Africa or something else--when I go to a Canada-EU meeting, I sit down with Javier Solana, Chris Patten or whomever the minister representing the country that has the presidency at that time is; and International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew sits down with Pascal Lamy and his counterparts; and the Prime Minister sits down with his counterparts. And because we work so closely together on these other issues, when we talk about business issues, there is an attitude that enables us to have a very productive engagement in working toward the resolution of those issues. That is where politics and business come together. As we keep focused on the immense challenges before us, we should not forget how much we have already achieved in building a stable, prosperous transatlantic community. One of the great achievements of the last century, without question, is the establishment of a durable peace in Europe. This is a shared accomplishment, of which we can all be proud. There is a monument in London, right across from Buckingham Palace, that honours the Canadians in uniform who passed through Britain on their way to the world wars. More than one million of our soldiers took that journey, from a population then but a fraction of its size today; and more than 100,000 were left in the soil of Europe forever. Since then, however, stability has been brought to Europe with the establishment of the EU, an enormously complex political project in the pooling of sovereignty that now binds 450 million people and inspires hundreds of millions of neighbours and aspirants to choose democracy and peace. And, despite the tumult of recent decades, an arc of stability around Europe's east and south is now discernible. I remember some time in the early '70s, when Jean Rey [chair of the European Commission from 1967 to 1970] came to Toronto and addressed a small group of academics. He predicted, much to the amazement and, perhaps, scepticism of us all, that the two most important transformative forces operating at the end of the 20th century would be the creation of the European common market and the rise of religious fundamentalism. When I taught a course in European Community Law throughout the 1970s and '80s, I often repeated Jean Monet's phrase, "Nous ne coalisons pas les états, nous unissons les hommes." At the time, that seemed a dream more real in the minds of the judges of the European Court than of the general population. With all of its imperfections, it is becoming a reality in today's world. This reality has emerged over the past half-century in partnership with North America. Ours is a transatlantic community, a community of values, interests and goals for human rights and democratic development across the globe and, not least, for investing in our citizens' talents and energies in a common economic space. We are, of course, important transatlantic trading partners. In the 1990s, however, businesspeople such as you in this room changed the way North Americans and Europeans worked together. Simply selling to each other's markets was no longer good enough; Europeans and North Americans took positions in each other's markets, to the point that EU-NAFTA foreign direct investment increased three times during that decade. Investment between the EU and NAFTA is now over 80 percent of that in the world as a whole. Within that success, the Canada-Europe dimension is very important, especially for Canada. In 2002, Canadian-owned affiliates in Europe accounted for sales of more than $77 billion, which was over four times greater than the approximate $18 billion worth of goods we exported to the EU. That is the result of Canadian investments in the EU, which expanded fivefold from 1992 to 2002. This represents more than twice the growth rate of Canadian investment elsewhere abroad, including in the U.S. The book value of Canadian holdings in Europe has now surpassed $20 billion. It is true that, compared with the U.S. export market, the EU as a market is only one-twentieth as big for us; however, as an investment partner, the EU is much more important to us, at about 60 percent of the U.S. investment market. This level of investment shows up in the quarterly reports, earnings and share values of Canadian companies, led by Alcan, which does over 50 percent of its business in Europe, not to mention other significant Canadian players such as Bombardier, Magna, Quebecor World and Nortel. Over 50 percent of Internet traffic in Europe is carried by Nortel equipment. And the two largest employers in troubled Northern Ireland are Bombardier and Nortel. The investment is flowing this way too. There are more than 1,800 EU businesses established in Canada, at a collective book value of more than $100 billion. We in Canada used to complain that we were not getting our share of European inward capital investment into the NAFTA market. During the 1990s, we were getting only three to four percent of what the U.S. was getting. In the last few years, however, it has been about 20 percent. Europeans are at last seeing the performance and opportunities in contemporary Canada more clearly. All of you in this room have first-hand examples of your own to prove my point: the business aspect of the transatlantic partnership is flourishing. You are also no doubt aware that Canada is currently working with the EU toward a comprehensive agreement to expand trade and investment in significant new ways: by cooperating on smart regulations, adopting mutual standards and harmonizing professional qualifications. As we do this, we in the government have been listening to the good ideas that business associations such as CERT [Canada Europe Round Table for Business] have advanced. At the upcoming Canada-EU Summit, we are looking forward to seeing this agreement, a long-standing government priority, adopted at last. We have also been making progress in facilitating and encouraging the exchange of greater numbers of young people between Europe and Canada, for education and work experience. When I was in Paris recently, it was with great pride that I signed, at the Quai d'Orsay, an agreement enabling some 15,000 Canadian and French young people to study and work in one another's countries. When I did that, I could not help but reflect on the time when I did my doctorate in Paris some 35 years ago, and on how much conditions and attitudes have changed since that time. I want to conclude, then, by underlining the importance to Canada of the transatlantic community we continue to build together. Business and investment are key pillars of this community, in which our citizens, Canadians, Americans and Europeans, have shared fates in peace and war for several generations now. Our basic values, interests and world outlooks are closely aligned, and our futures, economic and otherwise, will remain intertwined. Personal ties ensure this as much as any legal or institutional ones do. In my own family, my wife and son have Irish and Canadian nationalities. My daughter is French and Canadian, and her husband, a Frenchman, has American and Canadian nationalities as well. He works for a successful Canadian stockbroker in Paris, a firm owned by a Swiss bank. Their three children go to school in Paris but go to camp in Canada, and are as much at home here as there. So I know in my own family, as I am sure you know in your own families and among your friends and businesses too, that Europe and Canada have important investments in each other's future. Beyond all of the impressive numbers and the vast extent of our political and economic cooperation, it is perhaps, above all, these personal ties, and the genuine affection of so many of our citizens for one another, that instill confidence in the future of the transatlantic community. I am certain that we will continue building this community together, toward the greater security and prosperity of our individual countries, the North Atlantic and the wider world as well. Thank you. </body> </html>

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