Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!ubc-cs!robinson From: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: free trade Message-ID: <13@ubc-cs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 23:51:28 EDT Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.13 Posted: Wed Sep 18 23:51:28 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 06:11:40 EDT References: <2518@watcgl.UUCP> Reply-To: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson) Distribution: can Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 58 Summary: In article <2518@watcgl.UUCP> jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) claims: >Throughout the current ongoing public debate about free trade >there seems to be a tacit admission that Canada is in poorer >econic health than the US. Is this really true though? I've >done a bit of travelling in the US and they don't *seem* to >have a particularily higher standard of living in general; in >fact their cities have slum/poverty areas which seem a whole >lot worse than anything you can find in major canadian cities. I'd say that the US's economy is in much better shape than Canada's. Consider: unemployment - US: 7.0% CDN: 10.3% budget deficit - US: $200 billion CDN: $36 billion national debt - US: ~$2 trillion CDN: ~$240 billion * taxes - significantly lower in the US In all fairness I'll include: trade deficit - US: >$100 billion CDN: $20 billion *surplus* (for now) Due to the fact that the US is a country of extremes, comparing a Harlem to an East Vancouver makes as much sense as comparing Beverly Hills to The British Properties. I.e. the variation found in the States is undoubtedly higher, but that says nothing about the mean or median. >Another point I'd like to make is that one of the reasons we >have been having such economic problems in the last 10-15 yrs >is precisely because of the large percentage of our exports >that are to the US coupled with the unstable US market/economy. Elaboration on this point would be appreciated. >It was a long time ago but it seems to me my economics teacher >told us that diversity is a much wiser course (don't put all >your eggs in one basket as my mom used to say). Why don't we >develop our markets & make trade agreements with as many other >countries as we can so as to minimize the effect of any single >country's economy on our own. Makes sense to me. However, I don't see why we shouldn't cash in on our proximity to the US *as well* as diversify our markets. >Finally, how much political autonomy will we have once 80% or more >of our trade is with the US? They will easily be able to control >our political policies through economic pressure. Since currently about 77% of our exports go to the US I'd say we'd have exactly the same political autonomy as we have now. In fact, we may end up with more since it would be necessary for the US to actually renege on a formal agreement (usually not a popular move) in order to deny us access to their market, as opposed to the present situation whereby they could "legally" deny us this access if, for example, we refused to outlaw the NDP. J.B. Robinson * I'm not absolutely sure about this figure but I am 99% positive that it is higher than the US's, on a per capita basis.