Dubai: Canada intends to promote trade as a force for good in the world, the country’s Minister for International Trade, Francois-Philippe Champagne, said.
While Canada’s southern neighbour, the United States, deploys increasingly protectionist rhetoric — and may eventually deploy protectionist policies, Champagne extolled the virtues of progressive global trade in an interview with Gulf News last week.
“We need to do better in the world to explain that the multilateral trade system, the real trade order, has been very beneficial people,” he said.
“We may not have done, historically, a good job of explaining that, but that’s really [what] our progressive trade agenda is about, which is an inclusive trade agenda, but one which promotes the environment as you’ve seen in the CETA agreement. [It] has a chapter about workers’ rights, it has a chapter about the rights of states to regulate in the health and safety area.
“We want to use trade as an element of good in the world and make trade real for people.”
CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, between Canada and the European Union, was signed by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau in October, but not ratified by the European Parliament until February, following resolution of a disagreement in Belgium.
Champagne did not discuss a trade agreement with the UAE. “What we’re going to do, I can assure you, is to pursue initiatives — because agreements are good, but real concrete initiatives that will make a difference in the lives of people are even better.”
While direct trade between the UAE and Canada is relatively low, Dubai’s role as a regional hub for re-exports boosts its impact, making it Canada’s 16th highest trade partner.
Champagne identified several key areas where he felt the UAE and Canada could work more closely, including innovation, education, aerospace, the oil and gas sector, particularly oil services, and agri-business.
“Trade means growth, growth means jobs,” he said. “I think Canada has earned the licence to have an ambitious trade agenda.”
He said he discussed with DP World creating a regional hangar that small- and medium-sized enterprises from Canada could use as a stock repository, suggesting “many times how trade is done in this part of the world is that people want immediate supplies — what you’re selling to companies around the region, you need to shorten the supply time. The way to do that is obviously to stock some of the products here in Dubai.”
His visit to the UAE did include touch on the two nations’ dispute over Etihad and Emirates airlines code-sharing agreements, he said, emphasising that the talks were “constructive dialogue”.
“Dialogue could be people reading talking points on both sides,” he said. “Constructive dialogue is about sitting together to see where we can do more together which would be mutually beneficial.”
