Computing and Politics

[Zoltan/ZEE4]

Sure aren't. I'm all for trading with the U.S., the E.U., China, trade
with South America (incl. Cuba) and anyone else. 

The problem in Canada is that 85% of our trade is with the U.S., The
U.S. doesn't do 85% of trade with us, it's probably closer to 30%. This
is where the problem comes in- because of our over-dependence on this
trade we lose room to maneuver without harming big chunks of our
economy. As I see it, we need to aim to trade more like Brazil: they do
roughly 30% of trade each with NAFTA countries, the E.U. and their
neighbors, plus a growing Chinese market.

Quite simply we need a PM who is willing to put into action that talk of
a "trading nation" and go out and diversify our trading partners.  So
that if things go bad in market (say softwood) it doesn't hamper our
ability to do what needs to be done. Instead of what we have now where
every time somethings goes bad we get surrender-monkeys running around
saying how we have to be good neighbors and lets negotiate about how
much of our money they should give back to us. :)

Last weeks news of opening trade talks with the E.U. (basically shared
standards, professional designations) is one small step along that road.
But there's got to be a lot more small steps. 

This is what I mean by putting our interests first. 

Zoltan



On Sun, 2004-03-28 at 18:42, William Park wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 28, 2004 at 06:02:49PM -0500, Zoltan/ZEE4 wrote:
> > He was doing an interview where he said something like "The number 1
> > job of the Canadian PM is to be manage the relationship with U.S.". 
> > 
> > Sorry, but I thought the number one job was putting Canadian interests
> > first :)
> 
> So, you're saying managing Canada's export trade to US is not Canadian
> interest?

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