Canada Courts Latam Free Trade Allies Against U.S.
Reuters 5/8/2002

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Calling the United States' recent stance on trade "the ultimate hypocrisy," a Canadian parliamentary mission to Brazil said on Wednesday Canada would court regional allies to battle U.S. policies that contradict the principles of free trade.

The delegation said Brazil, Latin America's largest economy with a population more than five times that of Canada's, was top of its regional priority list both as a future free trade partner and a strategic ally to lobby against U.S. "protectionism."

"Being a close friend and partner with such an important country is in our self interest because it helps us with out constant struggle with the Americans," said Patrick O'Brien, a member of the parliamentary international trade commission on a tour of several South American countries.

The Canadian delegation played down what had been a bitter six-year trade battle with Brazil over aircraft subsidies, saying both countries had moved beyond that dispute.

The United States recently outraged global trade partners by slapping import duties on steel, while it irked Canadians with punitive duties on lumber. And the U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a farm subsidy law that has rattled big agricultural nations like Brazil.

While such U.S. measures clash with plans to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Canada will continue to pursue the FTAA, a free trade zone envisaged for 2005 to span from Alaska to Argentina. Or Canada will seek out bilateral free trade accords, the legislators said.

"It is in the interests of the Canadian government not to allow the Americans to dictate," said O'Brien. "If they don't want to participate in FTAA then Canada is still interested in talking FTAA with other countries."

Canada, in the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico, has a bilateral free trade deal with Chile and is concluding one with Costa Rica. Brazil and Peru have showed interest in such an accord, O'Brien said.

Jean Pierre Juneau, Canada's ambassador to Brazil, encouraged countries in the Americas to join forces to battle the U.S. measures. "As a group it will help us to fight these protectionist routes in the United States," he said.

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