CME supports government decision to extend TPP negotiations

Toronto, November 10, 2017

Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) supports the government’s direction and actions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement today and urges continued consultation with Canadian industry to ensure a broad-based, fair trade deal that benefits the country through increased value-added exports. The TPP, originally conceived as a trade deal amongst 12 Pacific Rim countries, was fundamentally altered when the United States withdrew from the potential deal earlier this year. With no substantive amendments to reflect this change, the deal would put many Canadian manufacturers, who account for 75 per cent of all exports, at a significant disadvantage.

“CME was instrumental in having Canada invited to the TPP table in 2011 and we continue to believe that an FTA in the Pacific region is the best outcome, however the rules of trade must allow for Canada’s manufacturers to export into the region,” stated Dennis Darby, CME’s President & CEO.

CME has long stated that for any free trade agreement to benefit Canadian manufacturers, and the Canadian economy as a whole, the deal must meet the following principles:

• Create a fair and level playing field for Canadian manufacturers and exporters to ensure that they have the same access to foreign markets as our competitors have to Canadian markets;
• Enable growth in value-added exports from Canada; and,
• Support existing integrated manufacturing supply chains developed through previous trade agreements, especially NAFTA.

“Given the US withdrawal from the agreement, and the amount of US content that is in most Canadian manufactured goods do the deep NAFTA integration, the rules of trade, specifically the product rules of origin, must be aligned to allow for manufacturers to export their products,” explained Darby. “Based on the information we have from negotiators, this has not happened, meaning that the deal would undermine the existing NAFTA agreement, would not allow for many value-added goods exports, and would not create a level playing for our manufacturers.”

“We support the government’s decision to postpone signing the deal now, and strongly encourage them to work with Canadian industry on a TPP deal that can work for the majority of Canada’s exporters,” noted Darby.