Trade report concentrates Canadian thinking on N.Z.

Press, 31 March 1989, Page 34

Trade report concentrates Canadian thinking on N.Z.

By

TOM BRIDGMAN

of NZPA in Ottawa

A report on the potential extension of a C.E.R.type arrangement to Canada has helped concentrate Canadian thinking on New Zealand.

The New Zealand High Commissioner in Ottawa, Mr Bruce Brown, and other analysts see the report prepared by Sir Frank Holmes, for the New Zealand Trade Development Board, as a catalyst for further investigating the concept. But broadening the Closer-Economic - Relations trade agreement to Canada is still an idea in its early stages, needing a determined political will to bring it about. It is being looked at in the context of developments in Pacific trade, Asian trade and co-operative agencies.

He said Sir Frank’s report had sparked further study projects in Canada, and had made Canada focus on New Zealand and Australia “as they haven’t for some time.”

“There is a sympathetic view of New Zealand but we have to work on it,” Mr Brown said. That view was mirrored by others with an interest in expanding ties between Canada and New Zealand. Heather Gibb, of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa, said

anything which was going to open trade and markets deserved support. The chamber had been promoting study of a possible New Zealand-Canada-Aus-tralia trade arrangement through the Pacific Basic Economic Council, a trade association for large corporations in the Pacific region. The organisation’s priorities had been the recently agreed CanadaUnited States Free Trade Agreement and working towards a successful conclusion to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks in Uruguay.

"If the G.A.T.T. talks break down, the Canadians would consider some form of Pacific trade association, she said.

“If the world is going to be carved up, Canada is going to be looking at other agreements.”

In Vancouver, the Asia Pacific Foundation president, Ray Anderson, said the Holmes report had been received with great interest, particularly by those involved with Pacific trade. "If we can’t establish a closer trading relationship, I don’t think anybody can do it,” he said. He emphasised that because trade between Canada, Australia and New Zealand was small scale, it would not set a strong

push from the private sector. The concept would not be developed unless there was a govemment-to-government initiative.

Canadian officials cautioned that a proposal to create a Canada-New Zea-land-Australia trade arrangement was not going to excite foreign-policy interest in Ottawa. Those interested in the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand welcomed the time and effort put into the Homes report, one official said.

“They see it in a positive light. But whether it is the answer to the question of trilateral trade we are not clear.”

Like the business group, Canadian officials said no action was likely until after the present G.A.T.T. talks, scheduled to end at the end of next year. Canada, like Australia, appears more interested in the creation of a much wider consultative forum for the Asia-Pacific region.

The Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, recently talked in Korea of a Pacific-style Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, causing an outcry in Ottawa because he excluded Canada and the United States from such an organisation. 'iThe O.E.C.D. is itself Irtnkinp tn oreater rnn-

sultation with emergent economic giants in Asia; Japan has a number of studies under way in this area; the former United States Secretary of State, George Shultz, suggested forming a Pacific Basin Forum last year; and a United States Senator, Bill Bradley, has called for a group of nations to promote economic and commercial relations across the Pacific. "Trade links with Asia are expanding at an explosive rate,” a Canadian official said. “At the moment what people are looking for is some sort of mechanism which allows them to sit down and exchange views. It exists well in the European industrialised context, but is missing in Asia.”

The Canadian Minister of International Trade, John Crosbie, in a Wellington speech recently spoke of “gathering momentum” for the idea of fostering and increasing ties with the AsiaPacific area.

Showing the direction of Ottawa’s thinking on the subject of a specific Canada-New Zealand-Aus-tralia trade arrangement, he said Sir Frank Holmes had “firmly put his study within the broader context of developments in Asia . Pacific and other emerging global trend* "