This morning’s WSJ notes an agreement between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and French President (and rotating EU President) Nicolas Sarkozy to expand trade relations:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France signed an agreement Friday to begin negotiations for a free trade pact between Canada and the European Union. A Canada-EU study released last week outlines the joint economic benefits of such a partnership, with two-way trade estimated to increase 22.9% by 2014.
The proposed partnership goes a lot further than Nafta. In addition to allowing free trade in goods and services, it would harmonize regulations, open up the air-travel market, and boost opportunities in government-procurement. Most important, it would free the labor market so that skilled workers could move easily back and forth across the Atlantic.
Of course, Barack Obama threatened to unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA, so no wonder the Canadians are looking to Europe again for expanded trade opportunities. Thus, Europe. From CTV, a Canadian news outlet:
Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon told Mike Duffy Live that Canada “has to seek out new markets” in these times of economic uncertainty.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
I agree, the AP is awful here
joeljournal (Diary) Monday, October 20th at 7:18AM EST (link)I can’t stand this stuff. I went to a Palin rally last week and everyone was simply cool and happy and American. White and black. Meanwhile I have had several run-ins with Obama supporters who freak out when they see my McCain hat or pin. It’s clear which campaign is really connecting to negative feelings and it’s not Palin or McCain. I commend McCain and Palin for running a campaign we can be proud of.
Joel Pollak
Guide to the Perplexed
http://guidetotheperplexed.blogspot.com
To point out the blindingly obvious
mikefisk (Diary) Monday, October 20th at 7:37AM EST (link)With that WSJ article…
…shouldn’t it be us doing that? Just saying.
Oh, wait, we have a bunch of demagogues in Congress who chant from the same trade book as Pat Buchanan. My bad.
“Once within the maw of Leviathan, degree of digestion is irrelevant.” – Michael Fisk
9.25, -4.77
Re-open NAFTA? - bring it on!!!
Republicanuck (Diary) Monday, October 20th at 10:00AM EST (link)Canada and the US, contrary to much uninformed rhetoric on both sides, have benefited from NAFTA, and one would do well to be reminded that there is no such thing as unilateral renegotiation – it’s tit for tat. As John McCain rightly pointed out during the third debate, if The One wants to reopen the NAFTA – then energy will certainly be on the table, much to the delight of many up here in the Great White North.
a big difference
charliehall Monday, October 20th at 3:52PM EST (link)This proposal would seem to go far beyond NAFTA, by opening up labor markets similarly to what has been done in the EU. The WSJ is supportive of open borders, and I tend to agree with them. but my impression here is that most commenters here think that is a bad idea.
Charlie Hall