Economist warns auto industry could suffer under Canada-Europe trade deal
Posted May 27, 2014 04:46:57 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new report from union economist Jim Stanford predicts the one-way traffic in auto trade between Canada and Europe will only get worse once the Canada-European trade deal is implement.
Stanford, an auto industry economist with Unifor, calculates Europe’s 5.3-billion-dollar trade surplus in autos _ already a record high _ will balloon to more than seven billion within a decade of taking effect.
The report was written for the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It says the pact, combined with the new deal with South Korea and a potential trade agreement with Japan, could eventually undermine the business argument for investment and employment in Canada’s auto sector.
Although Canada was able to negotiate a quota of up to 100-thousand vehicles in the deal, Stanford sees that number as a mirage.
He notes that since 1999 Canadian exports in cars and parts to Europe have actually declined by 45 per cent and that currently Europe is the destination for only three per cent of Canadian auto exports.
The report makes several recommendations to make the deal less damaging, including targeted supports to assist Canadian automakers to develop offshore markets and requiring European automakers to establish production facilities in Canada.
