G20: Stephen Harper downplays international spat over eurozone crisis after Canada joins Pacific Region trade talks
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LOS CABOS, MEXICO—Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new trade talks with Asian countries and played down tensions between Canada and Europe at the close of the G20 summit.
After months of lobbying the United States and other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Canada was accepted Tuesday into the 10-country group putting together a Pacific-area free-trade deal.
“A TPP agreement will enhance trade in the Asia-Pacific region and will provide greater economic opportunity for Canadians and Canadian businesses,” Harper said after sealing the deal in talks with United States President Barack Obama at the summit in this Mexican resort.
The TPP negotiations include the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Peru, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Mexico, which announced participation on Monday. Altogether, the TPP trade area will comprise 658 million people and total annual economic output of $20.5 trillion. Also, Japan wants to join the talks, which would provide greatly added trade potential to the negotiations from Canada’s point of view.
But Harper turned aside questions on what Ottawa might have to concede in the TPP talks. There are fears Canada might have to give up its supply management system that protects dairy and poultry farmers and also extend patent protection on pharmaceuticals, a move some argue would drive up prescription drugs costs.
Harper wouldn’t say what is on the negotiating table but indicated concessions sometimes may have to be made for the sake of the national interest.
“Canada aims whenever it gets into a trade negotiation to promote and to protect all of its interests across all of the range of industries and including, obviously, the greater interests of the Canadian economy,” he told the media. He contended that the Conservatives have done well protecting Canadians’ interests in recent trade negotiations.
In a wrap-up press conference, Harper sought to take the sting out of an international spat over his position on how to fix the debt crisis threatening Europe and, in the worst-case scenario, the global economy. Harper and other leaders have said European authorities are not moving quickly enough to defuse the ongoing financial mess on the continent and Canada has refused to join countries providing billions of dollars to the International Monetary Fund in emergency European bailout cash.
In remarks featured around the world, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso used a press conference at the G20 summit Monday to lash out at Harper and others he accused of lecturing Europe, saying “we are certainly not coming here to receive lessons from nobody.”
Harper refused Tuesday to be drawn further into a quarrel with Barroso, saying the commissioner’s comments had been exaggerated. “We’ve had good and frank discussions with our European counterparts,” the Prime Minister remarked. “Look, they understand the challenges before them are enormous, and they have made commitments through the declaration to all leaders of the G20 to undertake all the steps, all the actions that are necessary” to address the crisis, Harper said.
Despite months of criticizing Europe’s ineffectual reaction to its financial problems, Harper sounded a bit more optimistic Tuesday about the effort to subdue the crisis.
“In the Summit Declaration, Europe’s leaders have made strong commitments to, and I quote, ‘take all necessary policy measures to safeguard the integrity and stability of the Euro area.’
“These commitments are detailed, including the imminent establishment of the European Stability Mechanism to strengthen firewalls (to halt the spread of bank failures), and multiple, concrete steps towards a more integrated financial union,” Harper said. Lack of cohesive, Europe-wide banking regulation has contributed to the fiscal and economic imbalances destabilizing the continent.
“We look forward to prompt action by Europe as a follow-up,” he added. European authorities meet in Brussels in late June for their next round of crisis talks.
The G20, which includes developed countries such as Canada, the U.S., France and Germany as well as emerging giants such as India and China, agreed on a strategy to boost the sputtering global economy.
“We are united in our resolve to promote growth and jobs,” the draft of the final communiqué says, declaring the leaders will announce the “co-ordinated Los Cabos Growth and Jobs Action Plan” to achieve those goals. Canada and India spearheaded the plan during two days of discussions in Los Cabos.
Harper’s wrap-up comments were in keeping with the clear intention among G20 leaders to send an upbeat signal on Europe and the world economy to voters and financial markets.
Underscoring the importance of dealing with Europe’s problems, Obama left the main summit meeting Tuesday for a brief meeting with leaders from Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the European Union.
Obama also met privately Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Later, he sent word through a spokesperson that he was “encouraged” about Europe’s path. Merkel said EU countries are determined to resolve the crisis through economic growth, reducing debt and close cooperation.
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