Why Trade Matters
Why we Trade
Message from the Minister of International Trade: Announcement
of CAN-Trade
I would like to inform you of important improvements to how the
Government will help Canadian businesses succeed in the vital but
increasingly competitive world of international commerce.
The Government's November 14, 2005, Economic and Fiscal Update
set out a far-reaching set of proposals to foster Canadian competitiveness,
productivity and prosperity. The key part of this strategy for Canada’s
international business success is CAN-Trade, which is the Government’s
five-year $470 million action plan for securing our nation’s
future prosperity by intensifying business community engagement
in the rapidly changing global economy. It will ensure that Canada
has the right foundations and programs in place for success in the
new global economy; it is critical to ensuring prosperity for Canadians,
now and for the future.
CAN-Trade brings together for the first time the new resources,
modern commercial framework and the public- and private-sector partnerships
necessary for the Government to provide 21st century support to
our businesses and communities.
CAN-Trade is about harnessing the efforts of the whole federal
government–and tying in those of our partners in other levels
of government, business, and other groups that contribute to the
sustained growth of Canada’s prosperity. CAN-Trade is based
on four key pillars designed to provide businesses with the right
support, at the right time and in the right places: Communicating
the Challenge; Showcasing Canada to the World; Securing International
Markets; and Winning in the Global Marketplace.
COMMUNICATING THE CHALLENGE: First, we all know in general terms
where the challenges are coming from, and where the opportunities
are opening up, in this world of global and regional value chains
where emerging knowledge superpowers like India and China are rubbing
shoulders with the established giants–the United States, the
European Union and Japan. But general knowledge isn’t good
enough for business planning. My department will lead a national
awareness campaign, working with partners all across Canada, to
engage our business community in every sector and every region touched
by global commerce. We need to help business–and especially
small and medium-sized firms, which have less capacity to find all
the answers they need–get focussed on the risks and the opportunities,
to get access to the programs and services that will support their
global success, and above all, get them the knowledge they need
to develop business strategies that are appropriate to the competition
they face and the markets they need to develop. And awareness cuts
both ways: we will be listening carefully, across government, so
we can fine-tune our services and give our companies the competitive
edge they need.
SHOWCASING CANADA TO THE WORLD: Whether our firms are looking for
a customer, an investor, an innovator, or a distributor to succeed
in global commerce, they keep facing the same problem: the business
decision-makers who shape global commerce do not know enough about
Canada; about our innovative and technological comparative advantages.
They do not know why we should be their location of choice for North
American or global production or distribution. They are aware of
our energy and natural resource strengths, but too much of the rest
of our reality still eludes them. This has to change: Canadian business
looking out to the world must be able to count on international
business looking for Canadian partners. This is more than just a
branding exercise, useful though that is: this is about a concerted
partnership between Canadian private and public sectors to modernize
our global image.
SECURING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS: Business needs to be able to engage
international partners through open, predictable and secure access
to key markets. If Canada is to build more winners in the global
economy, the government has to work at every level, in every time
frame, to produce this kind of environment, including in areas that
go well beyond the old but still-important agenda of tariffs and
quotas. The new commerce faces issues as diverse as double taxation,
air and sea transport, onerous product or professional certification,
obscure or changeable tariff rules, bandwidth allocation, confiscatory
investment regimes, unenforceable intellectual property protection,
and plenty more–to say nothing of high tariffs and outright
protectionism. We have an active negotiating agenda already that
ranges from long-term investments in open global markets (like the
current WTO round), to bilateral talks on cutting-edge agreements
with the EU, Korea and others, to defending rights already negotiated
(like softwood lumber access to the U.S.), to opening new doors
in the nearer term through science and technology umbrella agreements
with China and India. New funding for efforts to respond to or forestall
protectionism or regulatory dissonance will complement this.
WINNING IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE: Finally, and most importantly,
we will specifically address the needs of Canadian business, in
emerging markets in particular. New programs strategically designed
to support SME success in a more complex trade environment will
be launched. We will ramp up our Trade Commissioner Service presence
in key emerging markets like China and India without neglecting
our core business with other NAFTA partners, the EU and Japan. We
will introduce a new Global Success Fund to share with SMEs the
risks of identifying and pursuing international partnerships, on
a cost-sharing basis, through taxable contributions on the basis
of three-year business plans. We will integrate the new Fund and
other tools available across the government with our ability to
gather strategic market intelligence, and work with business and
other partners to align our efforts around country commercial strategies
that will build sustainable, profitable relationships with all our
key commerce partners. Recognizing the increasing role for foreign
presence by our companies, including through strategic outward investment,
we will provide them with concrete advice on how to practise Corporate
Social Responsibility in varied and challenging circumstances. And
we will restructure our operations within International Trade Canada,
and with other federal departments and agencies, to provide a ‘knowledge
hub’ that matches geographic knowledge of opportunities with
sectoral knowledge of capacities in real time, including through
flexible and task-oriented units such as my new Emerging Opportunities
group.
We are all living through rapid and intense changes in the global
economy. Success will come from effort and focus, not from complacency.
I know that individuals, workers and firms of all sizes, all across
this country, are capable of that success. I wish to underline the
importance of everyone’s contribution in meeting our objectives,
ensuring we have the right tools and, above all, setting the stage
for long term Canadian business success in the rapidly changing
world economy. We will ask for the continued participation of all
to ensure our success moving forward. I look forward to continuing
to work with you in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Yours sincerely,
The Honourable James Scott Peterson, P.C., M.P.
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