Canada seeks quicker FTA progress
Korea Times
Canada Seeks Quicker FTA Progress
By Mike Weisbart
Korea Times Columnist
9 September 2005
Cheju - Canadian and Korean government officials are turning up the heat on ongoing bilateral talks aimed at concluding a free trade agreement.
Canada is very much a free trading country. We want to have free trade with as many countries as we can and we want it to be meaningful,'' said Canada's Minister of National Revenue, John McCallum, directly after meeting with the Korean Minister of Finance and Economy, Han Duck-soo, at the sidelines of the APEC meetings here.We’re hoping we’d make progress quickly on the FTA for when the leaders meet in Korea in November. We want it to be robust and strong, what you might call WTO plus plus, including in the area of financial services,’’ alluding to the fact that negotiations are moving beyond regulations in the WTO agreements.
His sentiments were echoed by the Korean government. In a written statement, Han said that he had agreed to expedite the negotiation process to sign the FTA.'' Dialogue has been ongoing since initial meetings earlier this year, with a major round of talks set to get underway this month.
For Canada, FTA negotiations have recently taken on new meaning due to a spiraling trade spat with the United States over softwood lumber exports. Canadian exporters were hit several years ago by countervailing duties imposed by the U.S. Congress for what it calls unfair advantages enjoyed by the Canadian industry. The result of the duties has been the loss of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in increased costs to Canadian producers.
The duties remain in place despite clear and successive rulings from NAFTA trade review panels that the charges violate the letter of the free trade agreement. The dispute flared up again last month when the U.S. rejected a final ruling from a NAFTA appeal panel that went against its interests, causing the Canadians to launch a war of words and threaten retaliatory action.The U.S. action on softwood lumber is unacceptable and we’ve broken off negotiations with them on that subject,’’ said McCallum, who again emphasized the need for Canada to diversify trade with other countries.
One thing that these recent troubles with the U.S. has done is to strengthen our determination to deepen and broaden our trade relations with Asia.''
According to the Globe and Mail in Ottawa, Canada is also eager to strike a deal with Korea before the U.S. does and, in part, to use Korea as a jumping-off point to access China and the rest of the region. It is particularly interested in getting in ahead of U.S. auto parts companies, but Canadian banks and insurance companies, like Manulife and Sunlife, are also said to be eyeing the growing Korean market for financial services, such as corporate pensions, life insurance and retirement planning.
Despite their agreement to move forward quickly, there are some obstacles, which will slow progress. Canada's strong auto industry is watching the negotiations carefully, as are shipbuilding companies who remain worried about increased Korean competition. McCallum, however, downplayed those concerns and expressed confidence that the deal would get done.I don’t see these as deal stoppers at all,’’ he said, before adding that I don't think we're really competing anyway in terms of the kind of ships being built.''There is a perception that there are significant non-tariff barriers in terms of getting in to Korea. I think we’ll have to have some answers to the areas of autos and shipbuilding, but I think we’ll find those answers,’’ he said.
