Free trade deal should exclude shipbuilding, Stoffer says
ChronicleHerald, Halifax, Canada
Free trade deal should exclude shipbuilding, Stoffer says
By Patricia Brooks Arenburg, Staff Reporter
2 March 2009
Peter Stoffer hopes to turn the tide on a controversial free trade agreement that could sink shipbuilding in Canada.
The NDP federal fisheries critic is inviting Liberal MPs to support an amendment to exclude the shipbuilding industry from Canada’s negotiations with the European Free Trade Association.
"We have the largest coastline in the world and we should be building those ships and protecting those jobs here in Canada," Mr. Stoffer said Sunday.
"If you’re building new military and coast guard vessels, I would think the average Canadian would want their tax dollars to be . . . hiring Canadian workers and Canadian businesses."
The MP for Sackville-Eastern Shore, who is holding a news conference about the industry this morning at the Halifax Shipyard, pointed to the United States policy to exclude shipbuilding and marine services from any of its free trade agreements.
If the agreement goes ahead as is, he said, the 25 per cent tariff on foreign-built ships would be reduced to nothing over the course of 15 years and Canadian companies would be in direct competition with places like Norway, which Mr. Stoffer said has had a heavily subsidized industry for many years.
"The reduction of the tariff could have some harm to our shipbuilders," he said.
Canada is due to spend up to $22 billion on repairs and replacements for its military, coast guard, laker and ferry fleets, Mr. Stoffer said.
Despite this, and promises of federal contracts for midshore vessels and the need for a coast guard icebreaker, he said nothing has yet materialized.
"Well, where are you going to build it if you keep signing these deals which will reduce our ability to be able to build them here?" he asked.
Mr. Stoffer said the response from Ottawa has been "a very polite ‘Go away and pound sand,’ but they do it very politely, of course."
The concerns reach beyond the agreement, he said, as Canada prepares for trade talks with Korea.
"They’ll insist on including shipbuilding in their deal as well."
