Business Leaders Support Key Foreign Policy Priorities, Urge Government to Deliver Quickly

April 19, 2005

Business leaders welcome the international policy blueprint unveiled today by the federal government, and urge Prime Minister Paul Martin to act quickly on its key elements in the areas of trade and commerce, defence, development and diplomacy.

“The global challenges are clear.  The strategic priorities the government has laid out are promising.  But if Canada is to live up to the policy statement’s goal of truly making a difference in the world, plenty of hard work and hard choices lie ahead,” said Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE).

The CCCE supported in particular the policy statement’s primary commitment to pursuing a comprehensive North American strategy through the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America signed by Prime Minister Martin, United States President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox last month at their Texas summit.

“Finding better ways to resolve disputes, making it easier for legitimate goods and travellers to cross borders within North America, reducing unnecessary and costly regulatory differences and making shared efforts toward greater energy efficiency as well as increasing the security of the continent:  all are important means of improving the global competitiveness of Canada, the United States and Mexico,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

“As the Prime Minister acknowledges in the policy statement, Canada’s security, prosperity and quality of life depend on how well we manage our relationships within North America.  Our country’s degree of success on this front in turn will be critical to the government’s ability to deliver on the rest of its ambitious foreign policy agenda,” Mr. d’Aquino added.

The CCCE, composed of the chief executive officers of 150 leading Canadian enterprises, expressed strong support for several other elements of the policy blueprint, including:

• Strengthening the multilateral trade and investment framework by working toward an ambitious outcome for the Doha Round of negotiations within the World Trade Organization;
• Making aggressive efforts to expand trade and investment ties with emerging powerhouse economies such as China, India, Brazil and Korea;
• Pursuing bilateral trade and investment agreements with established major trading partners such as Japan and the European Union;
• Facilitating access to the skilled people Canada needs through better admissions processing, credential recognition, training and support for immigrants;
• Concentrating Canada’s bilateral development aid on a list of 25 key recipient countries while doubling the overall aid budget;
• Establishing a Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force to plan and coordinate civilian responses to international crises; and
• Making major investments in people and equipment for Canada’s military so that it can be more effective both in defending Canada and North America and in contributing to global peace and security.

The CCCE warned that effective pursuit of these objectives at times will require politically difficult choices.  For example, Canada’s credibility as a champion of global trade liberalization and as an advocate for helping the world’s poorest countries depends on its willingness to open up agricultural trade in ways that could affect domestic supply management policies.

The commitment to greater spending on trade and commerce, defence, development and diplomacy will require the government to make fiscal choices as well. In particular, substantially bolstering Canada’s defence and anti-terrorism capabilities will require long-term financial commitments that will demand sacrifices in less urgent areas of expenditure.

“Effective international policy is a core responsibility of the federal government.  Giving the relevant departments the funding they need to move forward quickly deserves priority over any further federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

The CCCE also highlighted the vital connections between global success and domestic economic policies.  “As the international policy statement puts it, ‘the drivers of international and domestic competitiveness are one and the same: our economy, and every player in it, must be supported by an open, secure and competitive business climate in Canada.’ In other words, effective international policy begins at home,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

Hand in hand with leading-edge economic policies at home, Mr. d’Aquino concluded, “good governance and an unflinching commitment to excellence in all areas of Canadian life are the cornerstones of a strong and confident foreign policy.”

The CCCE, founded in 1976, has been Canada’s private sector leader in the promotion of trade and investment liberalization both within North America and globally. Its member chief executives head companies that collectively administer close to $2.5 trillion in assets, have annual revenues of more than $600 billion and account for a significant majority of Canada’s private sector investment, exports, training and research and development.

In addition to Mr. d’Aquino, the members of the CCCE’s Executive Committee are: Chairman Richard L. George, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suncor Energy Inc.; Honorary Chairman A. Charles Baillie; and Vice-Chairmen Dominic D’Alessandro, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Jacques Lamarre, Gwyn Morgan and Gordon Nixon, the chief executives respectively of Manulife Financial, Power Corporation of Canada, SNC-LAVALIN Group Inc., EnCana Corporation and Royal Bank of Canada.