Address by Minister Champagne at the 47th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas

Inclusive Trade and Prosperity Across the Hemisphere

May 9, 2017 - Washington, D.C.

Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.

It’s a great honour to have this opportunity to speak to you about Canada’s strong and growing relationship with its friends and partners in the Americas.

Canada believes that our shared prosperity lies in openness and the pursuit of freer trade between nations.

And we have never shied away from saying so.

Trade has always been in the DNA of Canadians.

What our country lacks in terms of a large domestic market we make up for with a diverse and entrepreneurial population that has always raised its ambitions beyond our borders.

We know that companies that export benefit from increased sales, higher profits and greater competitiveness—all of which helps them grow. 

And when companies grow and succeed, they create new jobs.

In January, I became Canada’s minister of international trade, but effectively I am our “chief marketing officer.”

Since then, I have visited no fewer than a dozen countries and almost every continent, including Chile and Mexico in March.

I’ve used every opportunity to promote open markets and to establish stronger commercial ties with Canada’s trading partners.     

I have also made it a point during all my travels to promote Canada’s progressive approach to trade, and I’m very encouraged by how this message is resonating around the world.

You see, we need to think differently about how we pursue trade.

If we are not in the business of securing the social licence to pursue an ambitious trade agenda, then we will succumb to the forces opposed to it.

Now more than ever, we must work harder to make the case for trade and to make trade work for people.

So what is “progressive trade,” exactly, and why does it matter?

At its most basic level, progressive trade is about ensuring that all segments of society can take advantage of, and otherwise benefit from, the opportunities that flow from trade and investment. 

In practical terms, that means we focus our attention more on the interests and ambitions of smaller companies, including those owned by women, youth, new immigrants and Indigenous entrepreneurs, putting them front and centre to help them reach their full potential.

There is no easy way to rebuild people’s trust in the global trading system.

But we can start by putting the interests of families and workers first and doing everything we can to make trade work for the very middle class I know we are all trying to grow. Because they are, after all, the backbone of our economies.

Trade must support inclusive growth and its benefits must be more widely shared.

Many Canadian companies—for example, Teck Resources in Chile—have adopted innovative approaches to sharing the benefits of trade in the markets where they are established.

I was very pleased to meet with representatives of Teck and of UN Women when I was in Chile in March to learn more about the partnership they formed last year to empower Indigenous women in the northern regions of the country.  

This great project seeks to promote capacity building among Indigenous women and address the barriers to their active political and economic participation.

Teck has told me that building bridges with communities is part of its corporate approach. It’s having a truly positive impact on individual families and Chilean society as a whole.

I highlight this not only as an example of how inclusive trade can be put into practice, but also to show you the power of partnership.

And I believe there is so much more we can be doing together, across our hemisphere, to ensure the future prosperity of our people.

When it comes to trading partnerships, no two countries have a stronger relationship than Canada and the United States.

Last year, the United States sold US$322 billion [approximately Can$426 billion]-worth of goods and services to Canada.

It’s estimated that almost US$1.7 billion [Can$2.3 billion]-worth of goods and services crosses the Canada-United States border every day.

That means our two countries have done roughly US$6 million [Can$8.0 million] in business in the five minutes or so I’ve been speaking.

Canada is the number one customer for most U.S. states.

For example, we continue to be a major export market for Florida’s agricultural products, fuelling economic growth and job creation in that state.

In total, nearly 9 million jobs in the United States are supported by trade and investment with Canada.

But we do much more than simply send goods and services across the border. We build things with each other—and with Mexico. 

All three of our countries are part of the same North American production platform, with fully integrated economies, supply chains and logistics processes that criss-cross the continent.

NAFTA has made this high level of integration possible and, in the process, has helped create the biggest, most competitive economic region in the world.

Our combined trading relationship reached a value of almost US$1 trillion [Can$1.37 trillion] in value last year—an almost fourfold increase compared to 1993, the year before NAFTA came into force.

Canada believes that NAFTA has been an excellent agreement that has benefitted all sides—including the United States.

We also believe that NAFTA continues to be in the best interest of Canada, the United States and Mexico—as a trilateral agreement.

One of the great things NAFTA has done is to have brought Canada and Mexico much closer together.

Trade between our two countries has grown so much since NAFTA was put in place that today, Mexico is Canada’s third-largest trading partner.

In many ways, Mexico has also become a bridge to our neighbours in Latin America as a whole.

What started with NAFTA two-plus decades ago has developed into an extensive network of free trade agreements spanning the entire region.

During my trip to Chile in March, I celebrated the 20th anniversary of our free trade agreement—Canada’s first with a country in Central or South America and one we are currently working to modernize.

And speaking of partnership, our work on modernization is already looking at specific ways we can ensure progressive elements, such as gender chapters, are included in our agreements to make sure they always put people front and centre.

Today, Canada has seven free trade agreements in force with eight countries in the Americas, as well as nine separate investment promotion and protection agreements. 

Together, these agreements have set the stage for a huge growth in trade and investment.

Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and the Latin America and Caribbean region was worth US$63.6 billion [Can$86.5 billion] in 2016—an increase of 62 percent over the past 10 years.

Meanwhile, Canadian firms are major investors and job creators in the region, to the tune of US$250 billion [Can$340 billion] in Canadian direct investment at the end of 2015.

Calgary-based TransCanada, for example, has been doing business in Mexico since the mid-1990s and now employs some 2,000 workers across the country.

Canadian companies are also big players in the region’s clean technology, information and communications technology, and banking and financial services sectors.

For example, in banking, our own Scotiabank is by far the largest Canadian bank in Latin America and the Caribbean and has a presence in the region dating back to 1889.

Today, the four Pacific Alliance countries are a big part of Scotiabank’s growth plan. 

The most attractive emerging markets for Canadian businesses are right here in our own hemisphere.

Latin America is home to growing economies, and the region has experienced a middle-class surge in recent years.

According to a World Bank study, the middle class in Latin America grew by more than 50 million people in the decade between 2002 and 2012 and now represents 30 percent of the population.

Mexico’s middle class alone is now bigger than Canada’s entire population.

With a rising middle class comes higher living standards and more purchasing power, as well as new energy and transportation infrastructure requirements in the region.

Canadian companies have the skills and capacity to help meet those needs, from high-quality food and consumer products, to banking and financial services to modern and reliable infrastructure and innovative energy solutions.

These are just a few examples of the tremendous synergies between our economies.

We also have strong and growing people-to-people ties and share similar time zones and business cultures.

All of these things make us ideal business partners.

That’s one reason why we are ramping up our engagement with our friends in the Americas.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an official trip to Latin America last November, visiting Cuba, Argentina and Peru.

Argentina is already an important market and commercial partner for Canada in its own right and as a member of Mercosur.

This regional bloc is a major economic player in Latin America, with a combined GDP last year of US$2.4 trillion [Can$3.3 trillion] and a population of 260 million people.

While in Argentina, Prime Minister Trudeau committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue on deepening Canada’s commercial relationship with Mercosur—a relationship that was valued at more than $8 billion in two-way merchandise trade last year.

In recent months, Canada and Mercosur have sought to reassess the potential for an ambitious and mutually beneficial free trade agreement.

And we are now consulting with Canadians to seek their views on such an agreement.

In Central America, we have recommitted energy and some of our best human resources, like Ambassador Deborah Chatsis in Guatemala, who is vigorously promoting our progressive trade agenda.

On the other side of South America, Canada looks forward to deepening its ties with the regional bloc known as the Pacific Alliance.

Canada already has successful free trade agreements with all four member countries.

But we can always do more to strengthen our trade links.

And we are very excited by the untapped potential for business partnerships that we see in the Pacific Alliance, with its growing middle class and open, market-driven economies.

Canada has been a strong supporter of the Pacific Alliance from the time it was founded in 2011.

We were the first non-Latin American country given observer status in the group in 2012.

And last year, Canada was very pleased to sign a joint declaration on partnership with the Pacific Alliance—the first agreement of its kind to be signed by the alliance and one of its observer nations.

We share common values with the Pacific Alliance.

We also have a shared goal of greater regional economic integration and free trade that can help create more jobs and opportunities for the middle class.

Whether it's the EU, Mercosur, China or elsewhere, Canada is working hard to realize an ambitious agenda of trade diversification. This includes pursuing new markets for our softwood lumber, given the recent U.S. duties.

We believe those duties to be unfair and unwarranted and are taking steps to defend our industry. And we will do the same for our dairy producers.

While the United States will always be a natural market for Canadian exports, there are lucrative opportunities around the world for Canadian companies today, especially as Canada seeks to open and deepen its trading relationship with a larger proportion of the global economy.  

NAFTA has shown that openness will lead to the development of global value chains.

And these value chains offer the best chances for smaller companies and those led by women, youth, Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented groups to plug into the global economy and reap the benefits of trade.

Canada’s progressive approach to trade is the way to get there and to create inclusive growth and prosperity for the people of the hemisphere.

I hope that our friends in this room and across the Americas will join us on that journey.

Thank you.

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