Canada Needs to be a Full Partner in the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Perrin Beatty

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By Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, National Post Sep 22, 2015

Is the TPP the first of a new breed of multilateral trade agreements?

Hopes were high when Minister of International Trade Ed Fast and his team of negotiators headed to Maui at the end of July for a high-level effort to reach agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Deliberations hit severe snags on key issues and the negotiators began planning another meeting — sometime, somewhere.

Certainly, the economic impact of this agreement would be substantial for Canada. Economic studies put the benefits at somewhere between $5 billion and $10 billion per year. But the numbers alone ignore that something much bigger is at play. The TPP is a turning point; an opportunity to put the global trading system on track for the future. In Canada, nearly two out of every three jobs directly or indirectly depend on exports, so our prosperity is intimately tied to this project.

The economic case for TPP is clear. Covering 12 countries, including our NAFTA partners the United States and Mexico, it supports Canada’s trade ambitions and its objective to attract more foreign investment. The TPP will also give Canadian businesses improved access to 800 million consumers across 11 countries, representing nearly 40 per cent of global economic activity.

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