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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. MARCHI - ADDRESS TO THE ATLANTA WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE THE COBB COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN SOCIETY OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES - ATLANTA, GEORGIA</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 98/65 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE SERGIO MARCHI MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE TO THE ATLANTA WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE THE COBB COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN SOCIETY OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES ATLANTA, Georgia October 14, 1998 (12:45 p.m. EDT) This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca I am delighted to be with you today. Of course, any Canadian would be happy to come to Atlanta in October! I just checked with my office and it's 52 degrees and raining in Ottawa. So I appreciate the warmth -- both of your weather and of your welcome! It is also great to come to the home state of the current Ambassador to Canada, Gord Giffin. As I was flying down, I thought about the relationship between our two great countries and some of the differences between us. But for all our differences, I know that few Canadians would want to live next door to any other country, and I suspect that most Americans feel the same way about their northern neighbour. So I come today as both a neighbour and a friend -- and as a Trade Minister who wants to build on our already significant commercial relationship. Let me just touch on three areas of common interest: the current state of American-Canadian trade relations, the importance of women in international trade and, finally, a quick overview of where we're at with the Free Trade Area of the Americas [FTAA] process, which Canada is chairing until October of next year. First, the U.S.-Canadian trade relationship. By any measure, ours is a rich and vibrant relationship -- indeed, the richest of any bilateral relationship in the world. More than a billion dollars in trade crosses our borders every single day. In fact, you trade twice as much with Canada as you do with Japan, your second most important trading partner. The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement has benefited both nations. Since its implementation, in 1989, trade between us has risen each year. Between 1989 and 1997, bilateral trade more than doubled: including goods, services and income, last year it exceeded $500 billion. We know that approximately 11 000 Canadian jobs and nearly 20 000 U.S. jobs are sustained for each billion dollars in new export sales. Quite simply, ladies and gentlemen, trade means jobs on both sides of the border. The bottom line is that trade and investment are growing, and jobs are being created. Canadians have particularly recognized the potential of the southeastern United States, which has been the fastest-growing region over the past six years. Annual trade between Canada and the Southeast now stands at over $40 billion. This is more than all of the United States trades with Russia, Sweden and Argentina combined! Looking specifically at Georgia, we exchange products worth nearly $7 billion a year. That works out to more than $19 million every day of the year. Some 150 Canadian companies, including Nortel and Alcan, have established facilities here. Similarly, some of your major companies -- such as Coca-Cola, UPS, and Georgia Pacific -- have made significant investments in Canada. Recognizing the potential, Georgia and Canada have established offices in each other's territory. The Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism has a very effective office in Toronto, and our Consulate here in Atlanta, headed by Marc Brault, is doing a great job of promoting trade between us. Clearly, both sides take the relationship very seriously and are committed to seeing it grow. But while the success of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement should be a source of pride, it must not become a cause for complacency. The reality is that there is still tremendous potential for increased U.S.-Canadian trade. There is still a lot of uncultivated fruit on the vine -- especially among our respective small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]. To many Americans, Canada is still a land of lakes and trees -- a resource-based economy ruled by Mounties and populated by hockey players. Well, that's a nice image, but it's also a little dated. The recent decline in our dollar is a case in point. When money traders -- those "guys in red suspenders," as Prime Minister Chrétien likes to call them -- knocked our dollar down in the face of declining commodity prices, they were demonstrating their ignorance of how little Canada relies on commodities. They are living in a time long past, in a galaxy far, far away. The fact is that the percentage of Canadian exports attributable to commodities has fallen from about 60 percent in 1980 to just 35 percent in 1997. This amounts to only 12 percent of our GDP. Nor is this a recent phenomenon: fish, energy, agricultural and forestry products have been declining as a proportion of our exports since 1971. By any rational measure, the Canadian dollar should not be considered a commodity currency, and the time has come for those currency traders to wake up to the new realities of the new Canada. But what is true of these traders is also, unfortunately, true of many American investors. Too many harbour similarly outdated images of Canada. When you think of Canada today, you should be thinking high tech. You should be thinking a knowledge-based economy, fired by information technology, fuelled by telecommunications and fortified by the third-largest aerospace industry in the world. You should be thinking a country that is number one in the G-7 in home computer, cable and telephone penetration. Number one in the G-7 in technology potential. A country that has put every school and library on-line. You should also be thinking a country with sound economic fundamentals. We have balanced our budget -- the first G-7 country to do so. Inflation and interest rates are low and growth is strong. And 40 percent of our GDP is directly tied to exports. The Financial Times of London calls Canada the "top dog in the G-7" and the Economist Intelligence Unit agrees, putting Canada among the top five places in the world to do business over the next five years. Certainly, the many, many American and foreign corporations with investments in Canada wouldn't disagree. Their profits have risen an average of 50 percent over the last two years. Now, that's a lot of boasting. And we Canadians are not a boastful people. So I will refrain from mentioning the study by KPMG, an international consulting company, which compared the cost of doing business in Germany, France, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Canada -- and ranked Canada number one. Nor would I bore you with the details that show Canada to be a low-cost location from coast to coast -- that the entire country offers opportunities and advantages for international investors. And I certainly wouldn't want to go on about how Canada offers the most generous research and development tax credits in the world. No, it would be wrong for me to mention any of these things, so I will leave them unsaid. But I will say that, in a world where technology allows companies to settle almost anywhere, quality of life considerations become very important in deciding where to set up a business. And Canada offers many advantages on that front. Advantages like a health-care system that doesn't check your credit rating before it checks your blood pressure. Advantages like safe communities, clean streets, a superbly educated workforce and spectacular beauty. And these are advantages that I hope you will consider when you're looking to expand or to invest. Before I leave the Canada-U.S. trade relationship, I must point out that 95 percent of all trade between us occurs without any problem. Unfortunately, there is that 5 percent, which garners all the headlines and steals all the attention. To be sure, there are some significant differences between us. We take strong exception, for example, to the Helms-Burton Act, which attempts to deny the freedom of other nations to make up their own minds and implement their own policies. We also have great concerns about section 110 of the U.S. Immigration Act, which, if implemented, will impede the easy flow of business people across our shared border. Congress has wisely agreed on a 30-month delay in its implementation, and we look forward to a permanent rescission of this legislation. We must not, however, allow these issues to define our relationship, which is, after all, a very healthy and mutually enriching partnership. We must not lose sight of the bigger picture. Speaking of the big picture, these are challenging times for Canada and the United States, as our trade and economic relationship moves ever closer under the NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement]. Equally, it is a challenging time for Europe, which is preparing to adopt a new single currency and to expand the process of integration toward the east. With the increasing interdependence in both the North American and European marketplaces, it is important that Canada, the United States and the European Union work more closely together to liberalize trade across the Atlantic. With cultural and historical ties to both Europe and the United States, Canada offers a natural bridge toward this goal. Let me turn now to the second area of common interest, and that is the importance and role of women entrepreneurs in international trade, which is getting larger every day. The contribution of women to our future success can hardly be overstated. In a world of intense competition, no nation can afford to deprive itself of the brainpower of half its population. In Canada, women-owned and women-led businesses are the fastest-growing sector of the Canadian economy, providing more jobs for Canadians than the top 100 Canadian firms combined. And this is while facing systemic barriers, old prejudices and "glass ceilings." I am reminded of a comment once made by Charlotte Whitton, the first woman mayor of Ottawa. Ms. Whitton said that "For a woman to get half as much credit as a man, she has to work twice as hard and be twice as smart.... Fortunately," she added, "that isn't difficult." But women are bringing a new level of energy and enthusiasm to our economy. Now we need to harness that dynamism and apply it to our international trade. We need to get more women selling their goods and services beyond domestic frontiers. Let me just quickly share some of the things we're doing to encourage more women to become active in this area. First of all, we need to know just how involved women are in exporting activities. We are, therefore, co-ordinating something called the Women's Trade Research Coalition, which is a major research project aimed at obtaining hard data on the type and extent of participation by Canadian businesswomen in the trade environment -- particularly the U.S. market. Armed with solid information, we will be able to make better public policy decisions. On the trade promotion front, it was my honour, in 1997, to accompany 150 dynamic businesswomen to Washington on the first ever Canadian Women's Trade Mission. This was an opportunity for them to network with other women business leaders and to explore the opportunities for both exports and joint ventures. And it was a great success. One of the spinoffs from that visit was the creation of the Women's Software and Technology Association -- a group of women who have banded together to market their skills and products here in the United States. In addition, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has launched a Web site, "Businesswomen in Trade," that provides a wealth of information on how to prepare for, and succeed in, the export marketplace, including direct links to thousands of domestic and international business opportunities. And next May, in Toronto, we will host the first ever Canada-U.S.A. Businesswomen's International Trade Summit. I will have the honour of co-hosting that summit with Commerce Secretary Daley. This will be an unprecedented opportunity for women business leaders to discuss policy, make new contacts and form new partnerships. This Summit is something you won't want to miss, and I hope to see many of you there. If we are to continue to provide opportunities for our people, we must continue to pursue the path of freer trade. That path needs to be broad enough to engage SMEs, women entrepreneurs, and you. Part of that path also goes through the Americas, which brings me to the exciting and historic FTAA. Canada is firmly committed to a Free Trade Area of the Americas, and we welcome U.S. involvement in this vital area. This means, sooner rather than later, the U.S. Administration must get fast-track authority. Why this push for hemispheric free trade? Why look to Latin America and the Caribbean? Because the growth is there. The jobs are there. The opportunities are there. By the year 2000, the region will have a population of nearly 500 million -- 50 million of which will be middle- and upper-income earners. It will have a GDP of US$2 trillion. And it is also a very young population. With an average age of between 17 and 21, their prime productive and consuming years are still ahead of them. We know what the baby boom has meant to the North American economy. In demographic terms, Latin America and the Caribbean stand today where the United States and Canada stood in 1967. So this really is a ground-floor opportunity, and we must get in on it. The FTAA also provides us with an opportunity to develop a framework for a more open, transparent and predictable trading system in the Americas -- a system that will ensure that the playing field is fair, the rules are clear and the opportunities shared. As I mentioned, Canada is chairing the FTAA process over the next few months and will be hosting the next Summit of the Americas some time in the new millennium. So far, we are pleased with the progress that's been made. In June, Canada chaired the first meeting of the trade negotiating committee in Buenos Aires. This committee established work programs for the nine negotiating groups as well as for the three regions that will deal with some of the larger issues that face us: issues such as electronic commerce, the special interests of smaller economies and the effort to include representatives from civil society -- business, labour and academia -- in the process. The negotiating groups held their first meeting in September, and the other committees are meeting this month. As we pursue a Free Trade Area of the Americas, we are under no illusion about the challenges before us. Pulling together a trade agreement among 34 nations, of varying sizes and economies, will not be easy. But we are also aware of the opportunities that await us. And so we will work hard to continue to make progress and to realize the long-standing dream of uniting the Americas into a single, powerful regional community. In the pursuit of freer trade, Canada and the United States have much to offer each other. As President Kennedy said when he addressed our Parliament in 1962, "Geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends and commerce has made us partners." Let us continue in that spirit. Let us continue to break down the barriers to trade -- whether they be outdated perceptions of one another, or glass ceilings that restrain our women entrepreneurs from fully contributing to our economies, or fears about hemispheric free trade. I quoted President Kennedy a moment ago. In the interests of bipartisanship, let me close by paraphrasing the words of President Eisenhower. In 1953, when he visited Canada, he invited us to raise our eyes above the difficulties of those days to the promises of tomorrow. He said, "No shadow shall halt our advance together. For we, Canada and the United States, shall use carefully and wisely the God-given graces of faith and reason as we march...[forward]." Let us take that wise counsel to heart and forge ahead as friends, advance as allies and proceed as partners. Because united, there is little we cannot do. Thank you. </body> </html>

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