A day doesn’t pass by where someone isn’t reporting on trade agreements and trade negotiations. A farmer commentator sent me this piece on what he thinks trade should be. Rolf Penner raises hogs, grain and special crops at Morris, MB.
“While any kind of a trade deal is a good deal, some are better than others. Everyone seems to be getting on the Bi-lateral bandwagon lately thinking that we can do better with them,” said Penner. “Those people are wrong. The Canadian marketplace is only 30 million people, peanuts in Global terms. Moreover, we are the number three exporting country in the world with almost half of our GDP coming from exports: That means we are highly competitive on those products. The U.S. has 300 million people and heavily import dependant, there is a reason people want to get into that marketplace.”
Admitting trade is a two way street, one has to get something, but also offer something in return. The Canadian marketplace does not have that much to offer. “That is one reason why multi-lateral agreements like the WTO ones are far more promising because we can team up with other countries to work on market access into those big global markets,” he said. “Bi-laterals are good, but they are no substitute for multi-lateral agreements.”
There’s one other case in point. When relying so heavily on a single bilateral trade agreement, for instance like lumber, and the giant doesn’t adhere to it, we have a giant problem: Economic withdrawal.
In my opinion, let’s shoot for the big one, the WTO and see if we can’t be a small fish in a big pond.