raydan raydan:
Thanos Thanos:
Yes, it's very important to get rid of trade barriers and give struggling American oil companies the opportunity to sell more of their product in Canada. It's the fair and nice thing to do after all.
More markets Canadian companies can sell to, but other countries will have access to our markets... so it's hard to see the plus side. To be good for Canada, we'll have to steal market share from companies in those countries.
Sure, some will say it's good for the consumer because there will be more competition for our money, but we know that doesn't always pan out.
The idea is that each country does what it's best at, so benefits by being the most competitive in that sector. It doesn't seem that Canada is really best at much besides selling our resources straight out of the box, and there's lots of other countries that can also do that, especially in a slowing world economy.
But free trade seems pretty well inevitable. I doubt we can make it if we isolate our economy. What is more worrying about these trade deals is how much power they transfer to transnational corporations playing off one country against another and being able to prevent countries enacting laws to protect the environment or labor. All part of the march to corporate control of the world. But again, since that's where everybody is heading, I'm not sure Canada has the ability to go against it all on its own.