Ottawa pitching trade deal to India
Agreement would create huge market for service industry
STEVEN CHASE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070312.windia12/BNStory/National/home
OTTAWA ― Ottawa will on Monday call for Canada and India to pursue a free-trade agreement, saying efforts to secure one should start after the two countries conclude existing talks on a foreign-investor-protection accord.
The message is being delivered in the Indian capital of New Delhi today by Ted Menzies, parliamentary secretary to Canada's International Trade Minister, David Emerson.
Free trade with India would give Canada a boost in the global race to sew up preferential commercial deals and open more market opportunities for Canada's lucrative service industry, from engineering to banking and insurance.
Mr. Menzies is leading a Canadian government trade mission to India this week on behalf of Mr. Emerson, who fell ill before the trip.
Ted Menzies, right, parliamentary secretary to Canada's International Trade Minister, stands with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, left, and Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago Kenneth Valley at a trade conference in New Delhi on Monday. (Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images)
The parliamentary secretary ― an MP who assists the minister ― is telling Canadian and Indian businesspeople in his speech Monday that Ottawa is eager to wrap up a foreign-investor-protection deal with India by the end of the year. (A foreign-investor-protection agreement safeguards the rights of business in both countries.)
After that, “a high-quality, free-trade agreement should be our longer objective,” Mr. Menzies says in the speech, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail.
“The world is knocking on India's door,” Mr. Menzies says in the speech. “They have plenty of choices and it is up to Canada, and Canadians, to step up, to become preferred partners.”
In his address, Mr. Menzies says he'll meet with India's Finance Ministry to help accelerate investor-protection-deal talks, adding the exact route to a subsequent free-trade accord will depend on what happens to stalled World Trade Organization talks.
As a free-trade partner, India would be an especially big fish for Canada compared to other bilateral market liberalization deals in its sights, including close-to-concluded talks with four European countries outside of the European Union and negotiations with South Korea.
Nations are scrambling to sign up free-trade partners as multicountry talks to liberalize international commerce flounder, from the WTO's Doha round to the moribund Free Trade Area of the Americas project.
Canada has inked only one free-trade agreement in the past six years: Costa Rica in 2001. By comparison, the U.S. Congress approved seven deals with 12 countries over roughly the same period.
India, the world's second-most-populous country, has a 200-million strong middle class with a rapacious demand for goods and services ― a market the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says will be worth an estimated $400-billion (U.S.) by 2010. It also needs engineers to help upgrade $420-billion of infrastructure over 10 years.
Mr. Menzies says that India is one of Canada's top trade priorities for new markets as the Conservative government assesses commercial potential around the world. “Where there are significant opportunities and a trading partner willing to work expeditiously to remove barriers and forge linkages, we are ready to engage,” he says.
“India is at the top of our list.”
India offers the Harper government an alternative emerging market partner to China, a country with which the Conservative Party of Canada has had a chilly relationship because of concern over Beijing's human-rights violations.
Like China, India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and some forecasts predict its growth could outstrip China's.
Unlike China, India is a democracy and shares a legacy with Canada as a former British colony ― one that left both countries with a legal system rooted in English common law.
India also offers Canadian companies another cheaper-wage locale besides China where they can shift production to save money and remain competitive.
The Harper government's embrace of India comes as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and Canadian Chamber of Commerce urge Ottawa to cement stronger economic ties.
“For many companies, India may well present the same kind or even greater opportunities that China has offered,” the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says in a report to be published shortly.
Mr. Menzies says Ottawa's “India Commerce” strategy will focus on selling Canadian expertise in infrastructure, mining, financial services, agriculture and information technology to India.
“We can no longer sit back and half-heartedly sell product to India,” his speech today says.
Separately, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is calling on Ottawa to set up a government-business advisory group to study the potential for economic and business co-operation with India, a move that it says could lay the groundwork for a Canada-India free-trade agreement.
Agreement would create huge market for service industry
STEVEN CHASE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070312.windia12/BNStory/National/home
OTTAWA ― Ottawa will on Monday call for Canada and India to pursue a free-trade agreement, saying efforts to secure one should start after the two countries conclude existing talks on a foreign-investor-protection accord.
The message is being delivered in the Indian capital of New Delhi today by Ted Menzies, parliamentary secretary to Canada's International Trade Minister, David Emerson.
Free trade with India would give Canada a boost in the global race to sew up preferential commercial deals and open more market opportunities for Canada's lucrative service industry, from engineering to banking and insurance.
Mr. Menzies is leading a Canadian government trade mission to India this week on behalf of Mr. Emerson, who fell ill before the trip.
Ted Menzies, right, parliamentary secretary to Canada's International Trade Minister, stands with Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath, left, and Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago Kenneth Valley at a trade conference in New Delhi on Monday. (Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images)
The parliamentary secretary ― an MP who assists the minister ― is telling Canadian and Indian businesspeople in his speech Monday that Ottawa is eager to wrap up a foreign-investor-protection deal with India by the end of the year. (A foreign-investor-protection agreement safeguards the rights of business in both countries.)
After that, “a high-quality, free-trade agreement should be our longer objective,” Mr. Menzies says in the speech, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail.
“The world is knocking on India's door,” Mr. Menzies says in the speech. “They have plenty of choices and it is up to Canada, and Canadians, to step up, to become preferred partners.”
In his address, Mr. Menzies says he'll meet with India's Finance Ministry to help accelerate investor-protection-deal talks, adding the exact route to a subsequent free-trade accord will depend on what happens to stalled World Trade Organization talks.
As a free-trade partner, India would be an especially big fish for Canada compared to other bilateral market liberalization deals in its sights, including close-to-concluded talks with four European countries outside of the European Union and negotiations with South Korea.
Nations are scrambling to sign up free-trade partners as multicountry talks to liberalize international commerce flounder, from the WTO's Doha round to the moribund Free Trade Area of the Americas project.
Canada has inked only one free-trade agreement in the past six years: Costa Rica in 2001. By comparison, the U.S. Congress approved seven deals with 12 countries over roughly the same period.
India, the world's second-most-populous country, has a 200-million strong middle class with a rapacious demand for goods and services ― a market the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says will be worth an estimated $400-billion (U.S.) by 2010. It also needs engineers to help upgrade $420-billion of infrastructure over 10 years.
Mr. Menzies says that India is one of Canada's top trade priorities for new markets as the Conservative government assesses commercial potential around the world. “Where there are significant opportunities and a trading partner willing to work expeditiously to remove barriers and forge linkages, we are ready to engage,” he says.
“India is at the top of our list.”
India offers the Harper government an alternative emerging market partner to China, a country with which the Conservative Party of Canada has had a chilly relationship because of concern over Beijing's human-rights violations.
Like China, India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and some forecasts predict its growth could outstrip China's.
Unlike China, India is a democracy and shares a legacy with Canada as a former British colony ― one that left both countries with a legal system rooted in English common law.
India also offers Canadian companies another cheaper-wage locale besides China where they can shift production to save money and remain competitive.
The Harper government's embrace of India comes as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and Canadian Chamber of Commerce urge Ottawa to cement stronger economic ties.
“For many companies, India may well present the same kind or even greater opportunities that China has offered,” the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says in a report to be published shortly.
Mr. Menzies says Ottawa's “India Commerce” strategy will focus on selling Canadian expertise in infrastructure, mining, financial services, agriculture and information technology to India.
“We can no longer sit back and half-heartedly sell product to India,” his speech today says.
Separately, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is calling on Ottawa to set up a government-business advisory group to study the potential for economic and business co-operation with India, a move that it says could lay the groundwork for a Canada-India free-trade agreement.
