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Freeland’s Trade Agenda Fails Canadian Workers, Says Union

Focus on small business ignores threat of Chinese state companies, USW maintains.

Jeremy Nuttall 9 Sep 2016TheTyee.ca

Jeremy J. Nuttall is The Tyee’s reader-funded Parliament Hill reporter in Ottawa. Find his previous stories here.

Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland needs to worry less about making it easier to sell Nova Scotia lobster in China and more about Chinese predatory trade practices threatening thousands of Canadian jobs, says the United Steelworkers Union.

Last week at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, Freeland told Bloomberg News that small business in Canada can benefit from accessing the global market.

“We really have to be rethinking how we think about international trade,” Freeland told the U.S. news outlet. “It’s not just for the big multinational companies; trade is about finding ways for small- and medium-sized companies to get direct access to consumers around the world.”

The Internet has made it possible for smaller business to access the Chinese market, she said, noting how quickly lobsters from Nova Scotia can be bought and shipped to the country.

Freeland said freer trade is “important politically” and will help stimulate the world economy.

But Mark Rowlinson, assistant to the USW national director, questioned Ottawa’s priorities and its willingness to stand up to Beijing.

“Our members are not so much concerned about whether you can get Nova Scotia lobster on the web and have it imported into China,” Rowlinson said. “We’re concerned about the fact that due to massive Chinese overcapacity and predatory trade practices the North American steel industry is in crisis.”

The union sent a letter to the Liberal government last week asking Canada to seek a solution to a world steel surplus that is driving down prices and threatening thousands of jobs in Canada.

The USW blames state-owned Chinese companies for overproduction that has created more than half the world’s steel surplus.

China’s surplus steel production is being dumped in Canada, the union says, threatening 22,000 jobs.

“That’s what the trade minister should be concerned about,” Rowlinson said.

During the Bloomberg interview, Freeland said support for trade was important in the face of growing “protectionist” sentiment in Western nations, pointing to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union as an example.

But Rowlinson said Freeland isn’t acknowledging the negative effects of trade agreements on working Canadians.

He pointed to the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade pact with 12 Pacific Rim countries that has been panned as a threat to Canadian jobs by the labour movement.

“It would be a transformative trade agreement for Canada, transformative in a bad sense,” he said. “She didn’t talk about that. Then she was talking about lobsters.”

But Dan Kelly of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said it’s encouraging to see small and medium-sized businesses being talked about as part of Canada’s trade agenda, crediting the former Conservative government for starting the focus.

Words aren’t enough, he said. “We need to ensure that the actions match the rhetoric,” Kelly said. “Until proven otherwise, I will accept at face value that that is their intention.”

Kelly said that aside from the trade file, “it appears to us small business has dropped way down the list of government priorities.”

He brought up the Liberal decision to cancel a promised tax break for small business and reduction in Employment Insurance premiums for businesses hiring young people.

The cancelled tax break is a particularly irritating given Ottawa’s recent commitment to provide $13 million in funding to help countries in South East Asia grow their own small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

“It certainly does look odd that there would be efforts made to stimulate small business growth and development in other parts of the world while cancelling the Liberal commitment to reduce the small business tax rate in Canada,” Kelly said.

The funding is through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international government organization aiming to foster trade and development. The largest portion of the funding, $3.9 million, will go toward “enhancing” policy and regulations in the region.

Global Affairs Canada said since 1971 about $187 million has gone from Canada to South East Asia to help such efforts.

Four days after the $13 million announcement was made in August Ottawa said it would also be seeking to liberalize trade with some South East Asian nations.

In an emailed statement, Innovation Science and Development Canada said it had launched a program to help small and medium-size Canadian companies access export markets in January.

The $50 million CanExport initiative created a fund to help businesses with revenues between $200,000 and $50 million with fewer than 250 employees access global markets.

More than 380 projects have been approved, the government says.

Note: Story updated at 8:29 a.m., Sept. 9, 2016 to add information.  [Tyee]

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