After eight months without any trade or tariff agreements, some people said that it was a relief to see that Prime Minister Carney had reached a partial free trade agreement with China. It appears to be substantially a liberalization of our sale of canola in exchange for their exportation to us of 49,000 electric vehicles.
To the extent that this begins a process of making Canada less dependent upon the United States economically, it is useful. And to the extent that it inaugurates a series of enterprising trade agreements with a wide variety of countries, it is the beginning of a welcome and long-overdue procession of events to end Canada’s status as a branch-plant country. This process began with the Canada -U.S. Free Trade Agreement of nearly 40 years ago, prior to which almost every company in Canada, except Canadian Pacific and the large banks, had the words “Canada Ltd.” after their names.
