Workshop
for Central American Trade Negotiators,
Welcome Remarks
by Hon. David Kilgour, Secretary of State
(Latin America and Africa)
Robertson Room, Department of Foreign Affairs
& International Trade, Ottawa
July 6, 1998
Buenos dias
a todos.
On behalf
of the Government of Canada, I welcome you
very warmly to Ottawa. Permit me to emphasize
how enthusiastic we are about this week’s
training session with Canadian officials
and others. Our government believes that
enhanced cooperation between Canada and
Central America can support your preparations
to participate in the one world economy
of the next century.
Desde mi
nombramiento como secretario de estado el
año pasado, he tenido el gran placer
de visitar a tres de los paises de America
Central -- Costa Rica, Honduras y Panama.
Espero tambien tener la oportunidad de visitar
Guatemala, El Salvador y Nicaragua en el
futuro próximo.
Since my
appointment last year, I have had the pleasure
of visiting three of your countries -- Costa
Rica, Honduras and Panama. I hope to visit
El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua in
the coming months. In conversations with
some of your political leaders during these
visits to Central America and elsewhere,
I have been very impressed by their commitment
to the modernization of your countries.
The initiative
for cooperation and this training for trade
negotiations arose from the meeting of the
Central American presidents with Prime Minister
Chrétien here in Ottawa in May 1996.
The presidents emphasized the need for the
Central American countries to develop their
individual and collective capacities to
participate effectively in trade negotiations
-- both on the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
the FTAA, and the World Trade Organization.
Prime Minister Chrétien responded
that this would be in Canada’s interest
as well as yours and he offered to share
what we have gained through our experience
in a number of recent trade negotiations.
Canada is
fully committed to building the FTAA, to
improved relations in the hemisphere in
general, and to a better global trading
environment. Our decision to accept the
chair of the trade negotiations committee
is the best evidence of this commitment.
We are very proud to have been given this
responsibility and want to assure you that
we will engage fully with all the parties
in the negotiating process. We consider
it essential to build public support for
the FTAA; Canada will do whatever it can
to ensure that the committee on civil society
-- agreed to by our trade ministers in San
José last March -- is successful
in its mandate to engage civil society on
FTAA issues.
In terms
of our relations with Central America, Canada
has consistently supported the members of
the Central American common market in their
efforts to integrate and to improve the
functioning of their economies. Progress
in this area can also serve as a stepping
stone to the FTAA.
It was in
this spirit that, in March 1998, my colleague,
the Honourable Sergio Marchi, Canada’s
Minister for International Trade, signed
a memorandum of understanding on trade and
investment with his Central American colleagues.
This understanding is intended to facilitate
increased and better trade and investment
relations. The kind of activity you are
engaged in this week is exactly what our
ministers intended.
Canada has
long been a supporter of the smaller-economy
countries in the hemisphere and we understand
the concerns of Central America and of the
members of CARICOM about their ability to
participate fully in the FTAA process. As
chair of the trade negotiations committee,
Canada will listen attentively to the views
of the consultative group on smaller economies.
We are also providing technical assistance
to improve the negotiating capacity of smaller
economy countries of the hemisphere -- specifically
this project with central America and a
similar one with CARICOM.
This brings
me to the program you are undertaking this
week. Perhaps, when you look at Canada and
the relative successes it has had in NAFTA
and the WTO, you think that we must have
some "magic formula" -- especially
for dealing with the United States. If you
look closely at our trade relations with
our big neighbour -- at the big trade irritants,
you will find that we win some and we lose
some. But, by long, careful and hard work,
Canada and the United States have created
a trading relationship that is highly beneficial
to both parties. On the whole, despite the
high-profile disputes that attract attention,
over 95% of our trade with the USA proceeds
with no problems. At over $1 billion in
two-way trade every day, this is a major
accomplishment.
Such successes
as we have had in our bilateral trade relations
and in the WTO are built on a process of
careful consultation with sectors stakeholders
and detailed preparation. That entire process
starts by defining our national interests
and priorities, but also entails realistically
assessing the possibilities and setting
achievable objectives. We really do not
think there is any other way to do it; it
is the only way to be prepared for the complexities
involved in participating in the global
economy.
Parenthetically,
we use the same processes for the WTO as
we do for the FTAA, so the experience can
be doubly useful.
I hope that
this dialogue proves to be a positive and
valuable experience. The mere fact that
you are here is in itself evidence that
things are changing in the hemisphere. In
the last few years, we have become more
aware of and open to each other. Although
we are still at the beginning, the 7-years
FTAA process has already borne fruit. It
has brought about cooperation that did not
previously exist in our hemisphere. Since
the preparatory phase began, there have
been unprecedented exchanges of information
and data on trade regulations, regimes and
market access. We are working together on
these important issues in a systematic way
unimagined five or ten years ago.
We in Canada
are excited by our future as an active partner
with you in the hemisphere. As Prime Minister
Chrétien summed up our evolving relationships
in the Americas in his remarks at the closing
ceremony of the summit of the Americas in
Santiago, Chile, "it is clear that
we are becoming something more than 'amigos.'
Somos una gran familia."
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