
Français		Home		Contact Us		Help		Search		canada.gc.ca		Canada International

Home > Media Room

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Canadian Offices Abroad

Services for Canadian Travellers

Services for Business

Canada in the World

About the Department

SPEECHES

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips

<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. MARCHI - ADDRESS TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE - SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 99/27 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE SERGIO MARCHI MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SAN FRANCISCO, California April 7, 1999 (10:30 p.m. EDT) Thank you to the Canadian-American [CanAm] Chamber of Commerce for the generous invitation to join you this evening. Let me say how pleased I am that so many members of the Canadian Women's Club are here tonight. In a world of intense competition, no nation can afford to deprive itself of the brainpower of half its population. That's why our government has been working so hard to encourage more women entrepreneurs to enter the world of exporting. We have just released a comprehensive study of the challenges and achievements of Canadian businesswomen in international trade, and I understand that a similar study is in hand from the U.S. Small Business Administration. These documents will give us a valuable base for discussion at the first-ever Canada-U.S. Business Women's Trade Summit, which is scheduled for Toronto in May. Tonight I would like to speak very briefly about the trade between our two countries and about the opportunities still before us. I also want to talk about a Canada you may not know, leading the world in areas you might not expect. I hardly need to remind any of you that the ties between our two countries are very special. President Kennedy put it well when he said that geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends and economics has made us partners. The closeness of our relationship is reflected not only in the friendships we have formed but also in the goods and services we exchange. We are far and away each other's largest trading partner, with more than US$1 billion in trade crossing our border every single day. California alone is an enormous market for Canada, with more than US$16 billion in two-way trade taking place every year. That's more than the entire value of U.S. trade with Russia and Chile combined. But while the success of our commercial relationship should be a source of pride, it must not become 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 vines of both countries -- especially among our respective small and medium-sized businesses. And in a time of economic turmoil internationally, it is more important than ever to play to our strengths -- strengths, such as the Canada-U.S. relationship. But if we are to fully realize the potential of our relationship, we need to overcome some of the outdated notions still circulating about Canada. All too many Americans have an antiquated perspective of the Canadian economy. But we've come a long way since the days when the Wall Street Journal was writing ominous editorials suggesting that Canada was a candidate for membership in the Third World. As the saying goes, that was then and this is now. Over the past few years, Canada has undergone an amazing economic transformation. We have balanced the budget -- the first G-7 nation to do so. Interest rates are low, inflation is practically non-existent and unemployment, while still too high, is falling steadily. Even our press has improved. BusinessWeek refers to us as the "Maple Leaf Miracle," Time magazine has dubbed us the "Export Superhero" and The Economist talks about Canada as a "fiscal virtuoso." We're still working on the Wall Street Journal. Certainly, the many American and foreign corporations with investments in Canada wouldn't disagree with these assessments. Their profits have risen an average of 50 percent over the last two years. And not only have we got the economic fundamentals right, we have also seen a dramatic change in the nature of our economy itself. If you're still thinking of Canada as primarily a resource-based economy, think again. The fact is that the percentage of Canadian exports attributable to commodities has fallen from about 60 percent in 1980 to just over 33 percent in 1997. This amounts to only 12 percent of our gross domestic product. Canada today is a high-tech economy, well positioned to compete in the emerging opportunities of the information age. Three of those high-tech sectors are the focus of this mission to California: environmental technologies, animation and the Internet. Canada's goal is to be the most "wired" country in the world and we are well on the way. We have put every school and library on line and are now number one in the G-7 in terms of home computer, cable and telephone penetration. We are also a high-tech leader in areas such as aerospace, information technology and telecommunications. In fact, I am happy to announce that Ottawa-based Solidum Systems has today expanded its strategic partnership with Lara Technology of San Jose. As a result of this further co-operation, Solidum and Lara will be able to present major networking equipment vendors with comprehensive and cost-effective solutions for developing network interface cards [NICs], used in high-end networking and telecommunications equipment. I mentioned environmental technologies a moment ago. Recently, we announced a major new push to provide financing for Canadian companies so that we can bring Canadian environmental expertise and know-how to the world. And earlier today, I toured the Alameda Naval Station Clean-up Operation, where EnviroMetal of Waterloo, Ontario, and Conor Pacific / Einarson, Fowler and Watson of Vancouver are testing their environmental technologies to see if these could be applied across the United States. There are more than 4000 environmental technology companies in Canada, and we see tremendous opportunities for Canadian and U.S. environmental companies to work together in the years ahead to address common problems and concerns. Of course, the environment is just one of the areas where Canada is exporting its technology. Recently, there have been some high-profile examples in the telecommunications field. When Uniphase went looking for a partner that could provide technology to expand band width, it linked up with JDS Fitel of Ottawa. And when Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard wanted to develop products that help to put voice communications on data networks, they looked to a Canadian company -- Nortel Networks. This technological leadership is no accident -- it comes out of a highly skilled and sophisticated work force, which in turn is a product of one of the most admired education systems in the world. We've invested heavily in education because we understand its value in the information revolution. We know that in the days ahead, the success of a country will be determined not by its resources but by the resourcefulness of its people. We have also focussed on creating an extremely supportive environment for research and development by offering the most generous tax incentives in the G-7. Of course, many U.S. companies have already discovered the kinds of graduates that Canadian educational institutions are producing. Right here in California, Canadians are leading and starting up some of the most exciting high-tech companies in the world. Among the better-known Canadians in your midst are: Jeff Mallet of Vancouver, President and Chief Operating Officer of Yahoo; Jeff Skoll of Montreal, a key part of on-line auction house eBay Inc.; Calgary's James Gosling, who created the Java programming language that is so central to Sun Microsystems' product line; and Bill Reeves, an Academy Award winner and currently Supervising Technical Director at Pixar. And, of course, graduates of Sheridan College in Toronto are among the most sought-after animators in the world. They include people such as: Dennis Turner, who worked on Star Trek: Generations; James Straus, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Dragonheart and who has led the animation of such projects as Forrest Gump, Jumanji and An American Werewolf in Paris; and Steve Williams, who received an Academy Award nomination for The Mask and who brought the dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. And if further examples were necessary, many of you in this room have discovered just how marketable a Canadian degree can be. So while some would refer to you as evidence of the brain drain, I prefer to see you as an advertisement for the quality of our education system! In fact, we're trying to attract more students to Canada. If Americans are looking for a first-rate education for about 25 percent less than they would pay here, they should be looking to Canada. Let me just mention one other myth that we need to overcome if we are to reach the full potential of our relationship: the mistaken idea that Canada is an expensive place for doing business. A study conducted by the international consulting company KPMG and released just last month tells a different story. The study was called The Competitive Alternatives: A Comparison of Business Costs in North America, Europe and Japan. It compared the costs of starting or operating a business in the G-7 countries in nine different sectors in both manufacturing and service industries. In nearly every category, Canada was found to have the lowest costs. Overall, we received the highest ranking. In the software sector, for example, the costs of operating in Canada are at least 15 percent lower than in comparable U.S. locations. For a software firm with 110 employees, that translates into savings of US$1.6 million per year. In the knowledge-based sectors generally, Canadian locations were about 19 percent more competitive than U.S. locations. So I invite you to read the KPMG study and learn more about our cost advantages. Indeed, in the days ahead I hope that all of you will look past the myths to the realities of Canada today. When you do, you'll discover that there is more to Canada than hockey players, maple syrup and Mounties: there's a dynamic country that has its fiscal house in order and its eyes set clearly on the 21st century. The young entrepreneurs on this mission epitomize this dynamism and momentum. They see a global village that gets smaller by the hour and, at the same time, opportunities that grow larger every day. Let us provide the young people in both Canada and the United States with a breadth of opportunity to match their energy and imagination. Let us not allow the vast commerce between us to blind us to the untapped potential before us. And let us not allow outdated notions of each other to limit our horizons as we advance into the 21st century. Instead, let us take this opportunity to make something old new again -- to build on our historical ties and create a dynamic future for the citizens of both countries. I look forward to working with you as we build that future together. Thank you. </body> </html>

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips



Last Updated: 2006-10-30	Top of Page	Important Notices