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Financial Times: There must be no turning back on Nafta Dalton McGuinty / Ft.com | March 12, 2008 For the past few months, we Canadians have had our ears pressed to the border, listening with great interest as our American friends discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement. As a partner in the agreement, we have a tremendous stake in how this conversation plays out, of course. But we also have a unique perspective on the agreement. For us, Nafta works. That is because Nafta allows trade to flow more naturally and fluidly across our shared border and has helped turn the Great Lakes region into one of the largest concentrations of economic might in the industrialised world. The numbers are significant. The eight Great Lakes states plus Ontario account for 30 per cent of North America’s employment and output and a healthy 36 per cent of its manufacturing employment. Every day, about $900m worth of goods travels between Ontario and our Great Lakes partners. At the Detroit-Windsor gateway alone – the busiest in the world – $122.8bn worth of goods, 6.5m trucks and 6m cars cross each year. This has helped create an integrated Great Lakes economy where products are made – not on the Canadian side, or the American side, but together as a region. Canada is the largest trading partner for 36 of 50 US states. Pennsylvania exports more to Canada than its next seven markets combined. Cross-border trade supports 221,500 jobs in Michigan alone. The regional trade relationship is complex, dynamic and, ultimately, good for our shared economy. A 2004 study in the American Economic Review concluded that, while there was short-term job loss in manufacturing in the early days of Nafta, the lost employment was offset by employment gains in other parts of manufacturing. Overall, wages increased, as did productivity. In fact, labour productivity in manufacturing increased by a remarkable 0.93 per cent annually. Overall, Canada and the US increased their trade with each other, forming a more cohesive North American market. Since Nafta was introduced, merchandise trade between Canada and the Nafta partners has increased 122 per cent, to $597bn in 2006. In a world where greater economic integration is the order of the day, Nafta has helped preserve competitiveness by pooling our shared strengths and resources. CLICK ON THE BANNER TO BUY TERRORSTORM IN |
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