Remarks by Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President, Canadian Council of Chief Executives to The National Summit, Detroit

June 15, 2009

Co-chairs William Clay Ford, Jr., Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ford Motor Company, and Andrew Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Dow Chemical Company, fellow panelists, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a privilege to participate in this historic National Summit here at Ford Field convened by the highly respected Detroit Economic Club.  I value enormously this opportunity to offer some thoughts on America’s competitiveness in the face of a profound global transformation that has left no country and no individual untouched.

A debate about America’s economic future cannot help but include your neighbour from just across the river, Canada.  As you exchange ideas at this Summit about how to achieve leaps forward in technology, energy, environment and manufacturing, the Canadian dimension should not be far away in your thinking.  Here’s why.

Our two economies are the most highly integrated in the world.  Our volume of trade with one another has no equal between two countries on the face of the earth.  Thirty-seven states of the Union have Canada as their most important export destination.  We do more business with one another across the Ambassador Bridge, just down the way, than the United States does with the whole of Japan.  Millions of jobs on both sides of the border are linked to our trade and investment.

In technology and manufacturing, our economies are finely meshed.  We make leading-edge products together and sell them to the world.  For our economies to recover, grow and beat the competition, we have to do everything possible to move goods and people smoothly across our shared border.  This means vastly improving cross-border infrastructure and employing smart technologies to filter out criminals and terrorists while facilitating huge increases in jobs, trade and investment.

On energy and the environment, our strengths are the most complementary in the world.  Canada is by far America’s biggest and most secure supplier of oil, oil products, natural gas and hydroelectric power.  For our mutual benefit, we must work together on the development and distribution of energy and on our strategies for a cleaner environment.

We in Canada were honoured when President Obama visited our country in February — the first of his international visits as President.  He and Prime Minister Harper announced the Clean Energy Dialogue — aimed at co-ordinating our approaches to everything from research into new energy technologies and regulatory issues such as vehicle fuel efficiency standards, to the highly complex and contentious debate on how to design a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions and other policies aimed at battling climate change.

Those among you who know Canada will appreciate that our unparalleled interdependence does not rest on commerce alone.  Americans and Canadians have fought side by side for freedom in two World Wars, in Korea, in the Balkans and today in Afghanistan.  We are long-time partners in the defence of North America.  We share a profound respect for the rule of law.  We interact and co-operate in countless other ways, whether in higher education or sport or when, in the face of disaster, a helping hand is required.

I hope that by now I have convinced you of one thing:  whatever tough challenges the United States faces in the years ahead, Canada will be close by as a trusted friend, ally and economic partner.

The competitiveness goals that the United States and Canada must work together to achieve are already well known:  they include smart public policies that nurture rather than kill innovation; responsible fiscal practices that reflect courageous political leadership; a tax system that is efficient and encourages investment while providing equity (has the time not come for the United States to consider a national value added tax?); a dramatic tilt towards excellence in our classrooms and improved skills in our workforce;  healthcare that improves the quality of life for all while not bankrupting the nation; an approach to the environment that enshrines sustainability in our political and economic decision-making but demands as well a level playing field in the global quest for action; and last but far from least, fiercely entrepreneurial business leaders who do not park their ethics at the door.

I repeat:  these imperatives are widely known in both our countries.  While all the challenges are not identical (Canada’s fiscal position, for example, is among the strongest in the world), we are both staring at the inevitability of relative national decline if we do not come to terms urgently with badly needed reforms and fresh ways of thinking.

Immediately ahead of us and the rest of the world is the need to emerge from the most severe recession since the Second World War.  Most nations have taken on record levels of debt in order to stimulate our way out of the crisis.  Wrestling debt down while trying to come to terms with the ballooning pension and healthcare costs of an aging population will test us mightily.

In the meantime, we have to confront and defeat the most dangerous of threats to our recovery.  I will conclude my remarks by mentioning one that is top of mind:  the cancer of protectionism.

Every recession triggers a short-sighted impulse to protect those close to home by shutting out competition from abroad.  As a Canadian, I obviously have a particular concern with the Buy American provisions included in stimulus legislation in this country.  I say this not simply because Canadian companies are being shut out of procurement by states and municipalities.  I say this because “Buy American” hurts Americans.

− When new public works cost 25 percent more because competition has been shut out,  Americans get less value for your money and the country builds less infrastructure  to support your long-term competitiveness.

− When other countries inevitably react in kind, American exporters lose contracts,  your investors lose money and your workers lose jobs.

− Most importantly, when we as Canadians and Americans throw away the hard-won gains  of free trade between ourselves, we surrender our biggest advantage in the global  market, the efficiencies of our highly integrated supply chains.  No one knows this  better than the automotive companies based right here in Detroit and everyone else  who depends on the flourishing stream of traffic between this city and Windsor.

I wish this National Summit every success and much inspiration.  The organizers have called for boldness and ambition in your deliberations.  Be assured that we in Canada are with you every step along the way.