HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '88, 1988-03-30, Page 44PAGE 20. FARMING ’88, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30. 1988.
Good or bad? Free Trade debate continues
The debate on the effect of Free Trade on the Canadian economy and
particularly on farming continues to smoulder even if the fire has gone out of
the debate with the federal government’s overcoming of provincial
opposition.
Here two views of the effect of Free Trade. Murray Cardiff, M.P. for
Huron-Bruce states what he feels are the benefits of the deal for local
people. In a second article, Raye Anne Briscoe, Ontario Regional
Co-ordinator for the National Farmers Union states that already some
indications are appearing that the deal will break even marketing boards in
the drive for free market concepts.
Good
Our country was built
on foreign trade. Agreement
will ensure free flow of goods
Bad
BY MURRAY CARDIFF
M.P. Huron-Brace
Canadians know from experi
ence that trade brings great
benefits to all. Our country was
built on it. Foreign trade is the
basis of our current prosperity. In
fact, exports account for roughly 30
per cent of our income and trade
with the United States, our biggest
customer by far, brings in roughly
a quarter of every dollar we earn.
Forthepast50years, Canada
has been seeking to gradually
reduce barriers to trade through
bilateral and multilateral negotia
tions. The new trade agreemen t
that has been negotiated with the
United States is the most signifi
cant step in this process - a process
that will ensure that trade with our
major partner will flow more freely
and securely by the end of the 20th
century. It is an Agreement
designed to prepare Canada for the
21st century. The Agreement
will:
• ensure our industries can grow
from their Canadian base;
• encourage new investment in
world-class Canadian enter
prise;
•create a more stable and certain
framework for co-operative rela
tions between Canada and the
Continued on page 21
MURRAY CARDIFF M.P.
'Changed circumstances'
from agreement will hurt
Canadian farmers
The “changed circumstances’’
resulting from implementation of
the Free Trade deal with the U.S.
will prove to be as much a concern
to Canadian farmers as the Free
Trade Agreement itself, says
Raye-Anne Briscoe of the National
Farmers Union.
In a presentation to the Ontario
Government in Toronto on March
8, Briscoe the Ontario Regional
Co-ordinator of the NFU said the
drawbacks of the agreement “far
outweigh any minor or short term
advantages that may accrue to
individual sectors’’ of the Agricul
tural industry.
Noting that the Canadian
government has traditionally ac
cepted the concept of orderly
marketing and supply manage
ment for farm commodities, Bris
coe said the U.S. has always
promoted so-called free market
policies. As a result, she contin
ued, vertical integration and in
dustrialization of agriculture have
taken place at an extremely rapid
pace in the U.S. as compared to
Canada.
“This is particularly evident in
such commodities as broiler chick
ens, turkeys and eggs’’ she
explained. “Our production of
these commodities is patterned to
Continued on page 23
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