Democratic Congress May Have A Silver Lining For Canada's Trade Interests

On July 1, the Bush Administration lost its special negotiating authority, which prevents Congress from amending trade agreements. Unless that authority is renewed, there is no chance that the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks will be concluded, which is bad news for Canada. Without the negotiating authority, however, the pace of U.S. bilateral and regional trade agreements will slow considerably. This is potentially good news, as is will ease the pressure on Ottawa to sign trade deals just to keep up with its neighbour. As for tensions between the U.S. and China, there is little prospect of collateral damage for Canada. Washington's growing list of WTO disputes targeting China and sabre-rattling over China's currency could help Canada, both directly and indirectly, by pressuring Beijing to liberalize and reform its economy on various fronts. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2007/04/c3606.html

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