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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>PIERRE PETTIGREWMINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADEIN RESPONSE TOTHE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE PIERRE PETTIGREW MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN RESPONSE TO THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE OTTAWA, Ontario October 18, 1999 It is with great pleasure that I rise today in the House to offer comments on the Speech from the Throne, which was so ably delivered to us by Her Excellency the Governor General last week. I also want to thank her for her excellent and moving installation speech. I am sure that all of my colleagues in the House join me in offering best wishes to Her Excellency as she begins her term of office. Her appointment is of special significance to the residents of my riding of Papineau-Saint-Denis. Indeed, many of my constituents are immigrants to Canada. Many arrived quite recently. I am proud that Her Excellency inspires us all and demonstrates that in this country, Canada, all citizens, old and new, have access to all offices, even to the highest office in the land. The residents of my riding of Papineau-Saint-Denis are also delighted that Her Excellency the Governor General will be joined at Rideau Hall by her husband, John Ralston Saul, one of the great thinkers of our time, a philosopher whose reputation and credibility extend well beyond our borders. I know he is particularly well thought of in France. In the throne speech, the government stressed the need for Canadians to open up to the world, and to be aware of our role and our responsibilities in this respect and also of the great opportunities and challenges that this entails. Not the least of these opportunities are those that come about through international trade and capital movement. As all members are well aware, Canada has founded its economy on external trade. Our present and future prosperity and growth are largely dependent on international trade. In Canada, one job in three is directly linked to international trade, and 40% of the GDP depends on it. This is the highest percentage of all industrialized countries in the G-8. A mere five years ago, we exported 25% of our GDP. We have therefore gone from 25% to 40% in just under five years. The vast majority of the 1 700 000 new jobs created since 1993 are the result of the increase in exports. As mentioned in the Speech from the Throne, Canada's economy is more open than any of the other leading industrialized countries. We have a population that comes from countries all over the world. In many instances Canadian businesses, because they have such a culturally diverse and rich workforce, have the great advantage of not only being aware of the customs and practices of other nations but of being able to do business in many different languages. Our investment in diversity over the years is turning into a major asset for us. To ensure that we continue to enhance that very real advantage, we intend to increase our trade promotion efforts in those sectors that have high export potential. Some of these exports did not exist even a few years ago, but thanks to some very dedicated, innovative and very clever people, whole new economic sectors are now growing up where nothing existed before. Our biotechnology industry, for example, is pursuing some of the most leading edge innovations in the world. Our environmental industries are growing at an incredible rate. Our information technology sector is large and getting larger with investments in high tech all over the world. The same is true in many other sectors of our economy such as agriculture, agri-food and natural resources. In other words, we are an important player in the global economy. As a government, we want to help our industries to develop the linkages with the world that will help bring growth and jobs here to Canada. We also want to take more direct action to encourage companies to locate in this country. Therefore we will be presenting legislative changes that will make it easier for global corporations to bring their headquarters to Canada. As the throne speech stated, we also intend to create investment in Canada, a co-ordinated effort by all governments and the private sector to promote the unique opportunities that are available here. In addition, we will continue to support innovation and the development of new technologies. Doing so is good for Canada and it is also good for our trading partners. Of course, one thing that is very favourable for Canada and its trading partners is the introduction of a rules-based international trade system. In fact, we are one of the most active advocates and promoters of this system. It is important that we be active in this area because our country, Canada, is neither the biggest nor the most powerful country in the world. We must continue to co-operate with like-minded countries in order to ensure that the rules are accepted by all and not dictated by the largest players. This requires skill and perseverance in all circumstances. Soon, the World Trade Organization's ninth round of multilateral trade negotiations will begin in Seattle. We hope to be able to build on the successes of the previous rounds. During these negotiations, Canada will continue to promote the strengthening of the international trade system. We will continue to ask for the rules to become more transparent, predictable and enforceable. We will continue to urge the WTO to keep pace with technological and social change. We want a system that would guarantee a level playing field, give Canadian businesses in all sectors easier access to the world markets and respect the needs, values and culture of Canadians as well as the environment. Issues are brought to the attention of the World Trade Organization on a daily basis. The recent interim decision on the Auto Pact is just one example. Unfortunately, I am clearly not at liberty to comment on this issue today because the decision must remain confidential until it is made public. I just want to say that we are actively consulting business people and other governments on this issue, and more specifically on its impact on NAFTA, and we will have another announcement to make. Some people are also concerned about the United States putting health and education on the table. I want to clearly reiterate in this House that our health system is not being threatened and will never be questioned during these negotiations. Our universal health care system is not negotiable. Of course, if we can find ways to export our health and education services, we will undoubtedly go ahead and do it. But, as the Prime Minister said many times, our universal health care system is central to our way of living. We will not let it be weakened in any way. We will promote and protect the economic, social and cultural interests of Canadians. In Seattle, I will raise as well the issue of the World Trade Organization as a body, including its structure and its procedures. I hope to be able to put forward specific proposals to improve it. Many think the WTO is no longer of any use since we have NAFTA with the United States, which accounts for 85% of our exports. I want to remind the members that the World Trade Organization is still very useful and needed, including to fight protectionist pressure from the United States. Another long term goal mentioned in the Speech from the Throne is our intention to work with our partners in the hemisphere toward the establishment of the free trade area of the Americas by 2005. I will be very pleased to host the 34 democratic countries of the hemisphere in Toronto in November, to continue to work toward the establishment of that zone of free trade of the Americas. In Canada we have the great advantage to be the neighbour of the very strong and dynamic American market. This, however, should not stop us from looking all around the world to develop other markets. That is what we are doing with the free trade area of the Americas. As the world trading system opens up as never before, as we enter the age of globalization, an age of new knowledge economies, we have to be aware that this new phenomenon is shaping the choices we make as a society. In Canada we believe very much that it is important to humanize globalization. It is important to remind ourselves that there is a human purpose to the economy and we want everyone to be able to buy in. The humanization of globalization is one of our government's objectives. I would like to share with the House some of my thinking, for example, on the issue of culture, on the role of artists in society and thus on the importance of cultural diversity for a country like Canada. I find that the role of artists in society is not only to express emotions felt by society but also to shape these emotions. At a time when we have to undergo changes as radical as those brought about by the globalization of the economy, I find it extremely important for every country to continue to make room for artists and allow artists with this responsibility to shape the emotions felt by people. It is extremely important to allow them to work to enlighten us, as a society, on what it is we are going through. Let us look at the deep emotions, the excitement as well as the insecurity felt by people dealing with globalization. We realize that the insecurity and the excitement can both be captured by artists, who can give form to them and help us understand how societies live with this phenomenon. Hence the importance of cultural diversity. In our own society, the society I come from in our country, Quebec society, I look at the role of the artists and the automatists in the global rejection movement in 1948. I look at Gratien Gélinas' theatre in 1948 as well, his Ti'Coq. These artists were the harbingers in 1948 of the quiet revolution that took place in Quebec in the 1960s. Twelve years ahead of time, these artists showed the extent to which Quebec was stifled and had to be liberated from many of its past experiences. So, the artists are the ones to see what is coming first. I therefore think it extremely important to give this matter careful attention. I would also like to tell the House how much the phenomenon of globalization changes the nature of exclusion as well. For 200 years, we have fought exploitation. With industrial capitalism came exploitation. In other words, people were exploited in this industrial capitalism, however, even exploited, the individual exists in a social context. Individuals can organize, form unions. They can negotiate and obtain better laws. The exploitation we have fought for the past 200 years is now over, because, unlike industrial capitalism, financial capitalism means the exclusion of more individuals. Exclusion is much more radical than exploitation, because exclusion means a total loss of bargaining power. In the case of exclusion, there is nothing to negotiate and no one to negotiate with, hence the importance of humanizing globalization, of remembering that the economy has human finality and that it exists to serve the whole population to grow. These are the concerns we will bring to the major rounds of negotiations in November. These extremely important phenomena are fundamental. It is extremely important to me that people understand that there is a balance with which the Liberal government has been approaching things, a balance that has to be concerned with this because markets cannot solve every problem. Of course our commitment should be to make markets work better, but at the same time governments need to pursue policies that reflect the democratic values and inclusiveness that ultimately make economic activity more sustainable. As the Speech from the Throne made clear, we intend to do more in the coming months to ensure that Canada continues to be an inclusive society, a society that values the contributions of all its people, a society in which everyone is given a fair chance to participate by helping people to learn new skills and to take new opportunities, a society in which children are given the best start in life and are given the support they need to grow up healthy and safe, and a society that supports and practises the concept of sustainable development for our environment so that future generations will also be able to build their own dreams. I think Canada is in a better position than most countries to succeed in the new context of globalization, in large part because of our history and in part because of our geography. As the throne speech indicates, Canada was born at a time when countries were formed in the crucible of war or revolution. In the 19th century, the norm in the traditional nation states, as they emerged throughout the world at the time, was for majority to assimilate minority and majority to eliminate differences. The traditional nation-state was based on a single language, a single culture, a single religion. Here in Canada, on the contrary, we have chosen another path. We have chosen to build a country that would not become a traditional nation-state. We chose a Canadian approach to reconciling differences. We chose to place tolerance, acceptance and respect of others at the core of our country's identity. We therefore chose to develop a political citizenship rather than an ethnic, linguistic or religious one. That political citizenship allowed diversity to become, not a threat to our identity or our existence--as some try to make it out to be--but instead a strength, an asset. Canada is a bilingual and multicultural society, one used to the reconciliation of differences and mutual respect. Today we are faced with globalization, which imposes the phenomenon of diversity throughout the world. We in Canada have 150 years experience with diversity, which means that, faced with the phenomenon of diversity imposed on us now by globalization, our country will know better than any other in the world how to deal with it and how to use it to the benefit of all of its citizens. Moreover, I believe that people everywhere in the world are interested in our experience. The most radical and the most fundamental question that will be raised in the new century with the phenomenon of globalization will be: is it possible to live together, equal and different? That is the most radical and the most fundamental question. With this throne speech, we want Canada to represent the optimistic response to that fundamental question. Yes, we can live together, in equality and difference. That is the human and optimistic answer. </body> </html>

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