Quick completion of a trade deal with Canada will help Europe regain some of its competitive edge, says British Prime Minister David Cameron.
In a speech that urged Europe to take decisive action to stem its financial crisis, Cameron told delegates at the World Economic Forum that free trade pacts are key.
"Rather than trying to involve everyone at once, let us get some bilateral trade deals done," he said, directing his comments to European Union members.
"Let's get the EU trade agreements — with India, with Canada, with Singapore — finalized by the end of the year."
Ottawa has also said it wants to get the deal with the 27 EU nations done this year. The pact has been under discussion since 2009. Canadian and European negotiators are meeting next week to hash out the remaining hitches.
Cameron also urged Europe to increase the size of its bailout and deal quickly with Greece's debt in order to keep the short-term crisis under wraps.
"We still need those urgent short-term measures to be put into effect," Cameron told the meeting.
He said Europe needs to make "painful choices" in both the short and long term in order to find its competitive edge.
That message will no doubt be repeated later Thursday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is addressing the forum plenary.
Like Cameron, who is close to Harper, both ideologically and on a personal level, the Canadian prime minister will also stress free trade as the best way to spur growth led by the private sector.
But Harper's speech will also focus on the domestic economy.
Canada needs to take steps to preserve its hard-won economic stability, Harper is expected to say in a speech that will likely elaborate on those steps.
Harper will riff on the "painful choices" theme later today, discussing ways Canada can flourish without putting its fiscal reputation at risk, officials said.
"As I think everybody knows, we've been doing relatively better during a period of considerable global trouble," Harper told a small handful of business men to launch a morning roundtable discussion. "But we're continually looking at ways that we can improve our performance and create jobs for Canadians."
The economic turmoil and lack of banking stability in Europe has been a major preoccupation for many of the movers and shakers at the annual brainstorming session in this Alpine town.
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel disappointed many with an opening address that shut down any discussion of substantially increasing the size of a bailout fund for the eurozone.
Like many regions around the world, members of the European Union are trying to find ways to foster economic growth and job creation without running up the national debt.
Harper will also be meeting with Cameron at the end of the day before flying back to Ottawa.
Canada's debtload is in far better shape than most developed countries, but Harper has still made elimination of the deficit a medium-term priority. His upcoming budget is expected to detail extensive cuts in government spending.
At the same time, government officials and Canadian business are actively looking for ways to encourage growth without running up spending. Some ideas being tossed around include public-private partnerships, long-term government investment in infrastructure, and government-backed loan guarantees.
But Harper's main approach is to open international doors for Canadian business by talking up Canada's energy and natural resources, pushing for free trade, and negotiating trade deals with as many countries as possible.
A new study released Wednesday, however, contradicts Harper's pitch about the Canadian economy being in better shape than others.
Number crunching by Canadian Auto Workers economist Jim Stanford shows that once population growth is taken into account, Canada's growth and job creation over the past few years has been decidedly mediocre.
He argues that growth and job creation calculated per person is far less stellar than the claims from the prime minister frequently suggest.
"It turns out that both components of this dual boast — that the damage from the recession has been repaired, and that Canada fared much better than other countries — are false," Stanford writes.
Since Canada's population has grown by about 1.2 per cent over the past five years — more than in many G8 countries — stronger growth and job creation are required to merely tread water.
Instead, neither gross domestic product nor job growth on a per capita basis have recovered to pre-recession levels, Stanford shows.
Canada's economic growth, again on a per capita basis, is smack in the average of the countries in the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation, the paper says. He has similar findings for employment levels.
"The self-congratulatory tone of so many official pronouncements in Canada is clearly unjustified," he concludes.
That didn't stop federal officials from touting their claims once again on Thursday.
"Thanks to Canada's economic action plan and Canada's strong economic and financial fundamentals, the Canadian economy has recovered from the global recession better than most other industrialized countries," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
At his morning roundtable, Harper discussed the global economy and Canada's energy prospects with a very small group including Andrew Michael of KPMG and John Rice of GE Growth and Operations.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and International Trade Minister Ed Fast were also at the roundtable, set up to discuss investment conditions in the global economy and opportunities to invest in Canada.
For more from the Canadian Press scroll down The Tyee's main page or click here.
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Terri Robson
17 weeks ago
Free Trade Agreements are the
Free Trade Agreements are the bane of citizens worldwide, they are the cedeing of Democratically elected sovereign Governments over to Private Enterprise.
Time to start a worldwide rally on insisting on eleiminating these odious FTA and instead push for
Fair Trade Agreements, keeping Private Enterprise out of the equation and make them go back to WTO for trade arbitration, not some CEO and Government to sort out.
No more CHAPTER 11 in any trade deals.
Dan the socialist
17 weeks ago
The secrecy of this
The secrecy of this government is not to far off from a dictatorship. Like why all the secrecy? It should be out in the open and a national referendum on this (and all so called free trade deals) plus not to mention Harper only has the support of the 39% of people that showed up to vote.
WTF about water contracts?
Lyin Brian and now Dear leader Chairman Harper ™ just love selling the country out. Hell back in the day they did it with the Avro Arrow. Why do conservatives hate Canada and Canadians so much for?
Fiat lux
17 weeks ago
The so called "free trade"
The so called "free trade" racket certainly rises "competitiveness".....with the free movement of predator classes with the free movement of imaginary capital as weapons of colonization used to destroy and steal more.
There's no question that if the EU can get control of Canada's resources, with the help of our "conservatives", they can dislocate, disempower and impoverish Canada, while racking up bigger profits that could help them out of their selfmade mess. While the GDP would record "growth" all around and everybody would be happy.
Now, the interesting part is that the Chinese and Indian predators are also planning the same and we can become a battleground between "global wealth creators" .
The same as in Afghanistan, where the NATO moved in to "bring freedom", in reality to stop the Chinese taking over the country's untapped resources, so they can do the same and sell them to the Chinese, making big profits.
In the name of "freedom", and "efficiency", of course.
Ed Deak.
Skywalker
17 weeks ago
FTA's
Free trade agreements are just a way of duly elected government giving control over to corporations without the public finding out before it is too late. It is corrosive to democratic ideals. Multinationals govern our lives and the people will be powerless to do anything about it. Their puppets like the Harper Governments will feed us excuses while the rich get richer and the rest are forced into WalMart. to buy groceries
dorothy
17 weeks ago
Is that the same UK
that gave Canada the boot as a trading partner, when it wanted to ingratiate itself with the EU? Now it turns out not to have been such a wise choice, eh? Do we owe the UK anything?
puppyg
17 weeks ago
Which way do we go? Which way do we go?
Harper and Cameron operate as a kind of inverse barometer in steering my thinking on matters of policy. My knee-jerk reaction to oppose their bold new initiatives is usually correct - politics made simple. I have glimpsed their 'vision' and man, it is ugly!
Luck
17 weeks ago
EU CRISIS FOREVER
CANDA STAY AWAY FROM EU ANYTHING UNTIL THEY FIX THERE MESS COMPLETELY.
IF CANADIANS WANT TO HELP A NATION, HELP JAPAN.
SOMEONE PUT ON LEASH ON HARPER HE IS AWAY IN OTHER COUNTRIES SHARING RHETORIC MORE THAN HE IS IN CANADA DOING HIS JOB.
WHERE THE HELL ARE THE FEDERAL OPPOSITION PARTIES THESE DAYS???
Fiat lux
17 weeks ago
Europe is a grossly
Europe is a grossly overpopulated mess, without resources and has been living off the colonies for 500 years.
Now need more and Harper is willing to deliver Canada, because he's a "highly educated economist" and knows what's best.
People were starving in Europe during the depression, war and especially the postwar years and
now have 50% more people. Therefore the CETA to come and take over, with China from the other side, with the cooperation of our politicians
Ed Deak.
RockyRacoon
17 weeks ago
You better start shotting the bstards before some kid gets killl
ed. Sorry to say and one of those photo's the coyote looks like a fox to me. It is beautiful but the other scavangers' look hungry. Time to do something. There are not that many rabbits around.
RR
Okanagan Orchardist
16 weeks ago
It’s tough to think of Europe…
In the way Ed Deak suggests. I’ve been there over a dozen times since 1988 and visited nearly all of the countries in the EUC, and lived for some time in England.
The positive changes I saw in England over that time certainly are not of a country overrun with migrants (OK, London and Birmingham excepted) or exceedingly impoverished. Their farm production (per acre) is far superior to anything we can do in most areas of BC.
Holland was once noted for being the country with the most people per square mile. You wouldn’t notice it if you biked over the whole state. It appears very under-populated because of all the pasture land, and, very prosperous.
Germany, of course, is green and rich. Their new homes of brick and stainless steel, with an energy producing solar panel on every roof, make most of our homes here outmoded and pathetic in appearance. Their Mercedes and BMW’s easily outnumber our Fords and Chefs. And if they were not so much more environmentally conscientious than we are, they would still have more than enough coal to make electricity for the next century.
France once out-produced the wheat production of all 3 Prairie Provinces, and I think it still does. Admittedly, Italy, Spain and Ireland are presently behind the 8-ball, but I don’t think it’s for lack of resources.
Switzerland, of course, is an entirely different situation. This beautiful, independent country has no comparable area in Canada, even BC. With enough nuclear power, it doesn’t need any of the other European countries for anything but money deposits---and there always seems to be a lot of that.
One of the European resources that is consistently underestimated are the people themselves. They tend to be far more educated, by and large, than most Canadians. Being tri-lingual is not a novelty there. The Dutch require a university degree in agriculture to be able to get into the business of farming.
It is true that, historically, European countries pillaged other nations throughout the world, but I don’t think that is the case now. Anymore than Canadian mining companies that go into South America to mine their resources.
I don’t think European countries are anymore voracious than Canadians, although I wouldn’t say the same think about our Neighbour.
artemiolivolsi
13 weeks ago
@RockyRacoon: You're
@RockyRacoon: You're definitely right. Time to do something...
__
Artemio
http://www.watershoesformenguide.com