Tories hope to work with PQ on its free-trade concerns
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Tories hope to work with PQ on its free-trade concerns
New Quebec premier seems interested in handling province’s own trade talks
By Jason Fekete, Ottawa Citizen With Files From Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News
22 September 2012
International Trade Minister Ed Fast says he expects the federal government will collaborate with a new Parti Québécois government that has serious concerns with the Canada-EU free trade deal, and he remains hopeful the agreement will be competed this year.
New Quebec Premier Pau-line Marois has named a new minister of international relations and foreign trade, and appears interested in having the provincial government, to some extent, carry out its own international trade negotiations - including the contentious Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.
It has some observers wondering whether the new Quebec government, which is al-ready taking a confrontational approach with the federal government, may look to scuttle parts of the trade agreement.
Fast said that Canadian and EU officials - who met this week in Ottawa for the latest round of talks - are negotiating the final few issues.
It’s believed some of the key sticking points are government procurement for capital projects and services, intellectual property protection and supply management in some of Canada’s agricultural sectors.
The minister said Friday that the federal government has worked collaboratively with all the provinces on the negotiations, including Quebec, and he hopes that will continue.
"I fully expect that I’ll very soon be meeting with my counterpart in Quebec to discuss many different issues of interest to the federal and Quebec governments, but going forward I would expect that we will continue to collaborate with Quebec, as we are with all the provinces and territories.
"Those collaborations have been very fruitful as we’ve moved those negotiations forward," Fast told reporters on Parliament Hill.
"I’ve made it very clear over the last year-and-a-half that we are aiming to conclude negotiations in 2012.
"I’ve also said that all the way along, I’ve been very pleased with the progress we’ve made.
"We’re now down to the final few issues left to be negotiated."
In the lead-up to the Quebec election campaign, Marois said she was worried the Canada-EU trade deal could restrict Quebec’s ability to favour local companies in tendering of contracts.
Dozens of communities across the country shared similar concerns, with many major centres such as Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton asking for permanent exemptions.
The PQ premier has also said she was worried about the secrecy of the trade negotiations and wanted to see some protectionist agricultural policies retained be-cause she believed in "agricultural sovereignty."
But in naming Jean-François Lisee this week as Minister of International Relations and Foreign Trade, Marois promised to open the province’s borders to the rest of the globe.
"Our society is open to the world, as much in terms of trade as in culture and international co-operation," Marois said during the minister’s swearing-in ceremony, according to a government news release.
"What I am asking you to do is to throw open the doors of Quebec to the world."
Officials with Quebec’s international relations and foreign trade department did not respond to an inquiry Friday.
Lawrence Herman, a Toronto-based international trade lawyer and former senior trade representative for the federal government, said the Canada-EU deal is hugely important for Quebec and the entire country.
Protectionist trade policies from the PQ government could hurt major Quebec-based companies such as Bombardier and SNC-Laval-in that are highly dependent upon international trade, he noted.
"If Marois plays around with this for political reasons, I think she’s making a grave mistake.
"It certainly seems to me to be in Quebec’s interest to show that it is open for in-vestment and trading opportunities and that it’s not a closed parochial market," Herman said.
