Pubdate: Sat, 14 Apr 2012
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400

CANADA'S ROLE AT SUMMIT SMALL

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's ride into Cartagena, Colombia, this 
weekend should have been one of triumph.

Five years after declaring Canada as a nation of the western 
hemisphere, determined to focus political, economic and assistance 
programs on the Americas, he should have been welcomed as a hero at 
the Summit of the Americas for trumpeting a region that has continued 
to advance economically, socially and politically while much of the 
rest of the world sailed into the doldrums.

Alas, reality has stymied Canada's determination to play its Americas 
card. Far from being seen as a prescient predictor of the region's 
good fortune and a champion of its social evolution, Canada has been 
outed as a bit player with weak resolve and contradictory - some 
suggest backward - economic and social policies.

It was left to Trade Minister Ed Fast this week to explain to his 
colleagues in Peru why Canada continues to clutch on to its 
anachronistic egg, dairy and poultry marketing boards even as he 
petitions for support to be allowed into the important Trans-pacific 
Partnership trading bloc.

Peru, by the way, is already among the nine member nations that make 
up the tariff-free bloc that bridges the Americas with Asia. Mr. Fast 
repeated a half-hearted commitment Mr. Harper made this month to 
President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, 
that Canada will bring supply management to the table if that's what 
it takes to see what others have to offer.

Canada, which is becoming desperate for a diversity of marketing 
opportunities, has little leverage in playing hardball with Latin 
America. Unlike Europe and the United States, the Latin American 
economy has thrived over the past half decade in large part because 
of Asia's rapacious demand for its raw material.

And the region hardly sees Canada as a natural ally. Its governments 
have complained about Canada's weak royalty regime that allows 
resources to be sold cheaply.

More critically of late, Canada has become the region's laggard when 
it comes to liberalized drug strategy that's being promoted to pluck 
the wings of the powerful, brutal, and destructive drug cartels. 
Although the markets for these drugs are primarily north of the Rio 
Grande, the worst of the social disruption and violence - worse than 
during the political violence of the 1970s and '80s - is felt from 
Northern Mexico to Central America to the Amazon and Andean coast.

The Harper government's determination to continue the war on drugs 
that's been proven so ineffective for decades runs counter to most in 
the region - including across the B.C. border in Washington, where 
Initiative 502 calls for licensing marijuana farmers and distributors 
in an effort to wrest profits from drug cartels and pump $606 million 
into state coffers.

Canada wants and needs to play on the world stage when it comes to 
international trade. Mr. Harper's trip to Cartagena is a 
down-to-earth reminder that this means it won't be left to Canada to 
set the rules.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom