Linkage

I'm glad to see the Conservative government is at least signaling that its prepared to take a tougher line with the U.S. on trade:

Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement would have "consequences," Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon warned yesterday, including finding markets other than the United States for Canadian oil.

Mr. Cannon said he agreed with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's assessment this week when he suggested to business leaders that he was not reassured on the future of NAFTA after a meeting with advisors to U. S. president-elect Barack Obama.

During the presidential primaries, Mr. Obama raised the possibility of renegotiating the three-way trade agreement, which also includes Mexico, in order to protect U. S. jobs. Until the Obama team firmly discounts that possibility, Canada's Conservative government continues to send strong messages defending the treaty.

"Clearly I share Minister Flaherty's views on that," Mr. Cannon said in an interview yesterday. "Canada is an energy superpower. We produce oil. If, at the end of the day, that is not going to find a way down to the American market, we have to be able to sell it elsewhere. There are consequences to this, on both sides."

Added Mr. Cannon: "We don't take it lightly."

The fact is, the Americans do need us too. Or, at least, they need our oil. Reminding them of that should they get bellicose with protectionist rhetoric and threats is the right thing to do. It also would have been the right thing to do during the softwood lumber dispute, instead of the Conservative decision to surrender and let the U.S. keep $1 billion in illegally-collected duties.

Anyway, I will watch with interest to see the reaction to Cannon and Flaherty's comments from the Stemlach government in Alberta, and from the Conservative Alberta caucus. When the Liberals were trying to deal with the softwood dispute, I favoured linkage, and reminding the U.S. of our oil exports. Never happened though, for one simple reason: Alberta, and the Conservatives, would have unleashed a furious rage of anti-Liberal rhetoric, claiming we were selling-out Alberta to protect Eastern blah blah.

Perhaps like only Nixon could go to China, only the Conservatives could threaten the U.S. over the oil sands. We'll see if Albertans buy that theory or not.

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

Layton and Dobbs, BFF

I caught Jack Layton on CNN last night with Lou Dobbs and I must say, it was quite the love-fest. Dobbs certainly seemed to be in love with Jack. I’m not sure how mutual it was, that Layton is coy, but Lou was positively swooning.

I’m sure there will be video up on the NDP site or YouTube shortly so I won’t summarize the interview, basically they talked about how bad NAFTA is for working families, and how all our manufacturing jobs are going to China. I’ll say that I did agree with them on the stupidity of raw-log exports, I’ve been saying that for years. Just one quick question at the end on the leak scandal.

It being a quick interview, unfortunately we didn’t get to learn if Jack shares Lou’s views on stopping the illegal immigrants from taking our jobs and murdering our women, and building a giant fence on the border to keep out the Mexicans, or if Lou shares Jack’s views on American imperialism and related subjects. Maybe next time, Lou is keen to have him back.

I am curious on one thing, as a novice when it comes to trade issues. Both of them went on about all these manufacturing jobs going to China. How is renegotiating a trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico going to prevent that? I don’t see it.

Also, it seems that in negotiations someone gives something up, and someone gains something. Clearly we both have some issues with NAFTA, it certainly hasn’t helped on the softwood front for example. They both want to re-open it, I just wonder who they see the winner being, and who the loser. While they both may not like the deal, I’m not sure their end-games are really compatible.

Anyway, while this will rile-up the militant left there just seemed something archaic to be watching these two guys go on about the evils of globalization and how it must be stopped. It certainly has its downsides, I agree, and we should try to manage them, but that genie isn’t going back in the bottle.

UPDATE: Ed Hollett also has some thoughts on Jack's CNN appearance.

And here's the video:

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers

Woe is BC: First softwood lumber, and now this?

We already watched while the Harper Conservatives sold-out the B.C. lumber industry by signing a softwood lumber “deal” that let a billion dollars slip away and failed to buy any trade peace. Now it looks like one of B.C.'s other major industries may be threatned under the Conservative watch:

Pot replaces poppy in fields of Afghanistan
RAHIM FAIEZ
Associated Press

KABUL — The fields of Balkh province in northern Afghanistan are free of opium poppies this year.

It's a success touted often by Afghan and international officials.

But one look at some fields uncovers an emerging drug problem.

Three-metre-tall cannabis plants flourish where poppy plants used to grow.

The crop — the source of both marijuana and hashish — can be just as profitable as opium but draws none of the scrutiny from Afghan officials.

First the BC lumber industry took a major hit, and now our even more famous export, BC Bud, may be in trouble too.

Will Stephen Harper stand-up for Canada, and for BC marijuana? Will International Trade Minister, and B.C. MP, David Emerson errect a tarrif wall to protect us from cheap Afghan imports? It's time for action!

Elsewhere, Red Tory has a more serious take.

Recommend this Post on Progressive Bloggers