My first recollection of the meaning of “trade” was as a child trading hockey cards with school mates when I was a young boy growing up in Ontario, Canada. We’d bring our cards to school and at recess we would come together in the school yard to compare our collections regardless of how cold it was. In rapid fire we’d shout out “Got ‘em”, “Need ‘em” as we’d take turns flipping through our decks of Guy Lafleurs, Dave Keons, Gilbert Perreaults and Tony Espositos. Some days the activity would rival the trading floor of a stock exchange. Sometimes you would get lucky and get a really good player without giving up much but usually the trades were pretty fair and based on the laws supply and demand just as in the ‘real world.’ Trade was unfettered, within the time allotted for recess, unless we got a little too rowdy calling the attention of the teacher on the playground.
Fast-forward many years later to 1986-1987 when Canada and the United States were negotiating our first free trade agreement that on January 1, 1989 became the precursor to NAFTA. I remember how thoroughly the agreement was discussed and debated in Canada. It was a really big deal for Canadians as we thought about more economic prosperity and trade with the U.S. but also about Canadian cultural protections especially in the arts. We wanted to share more with our friends to the South just as long as we did not lose what was uniquely Canadian.
I was one of the tens of thousands of Canadians who ordered a copy of the agreement. Now I’d like to say I read it thoroughly, but somehow just having a copy of it meant something in a strange way – that I was doing my little part in the greater span of Canada – U.S. relations. Even without the benefit of time and hindsight, we could sense in the moment that it was remarkable and unique for a “trade agreement” of all things to capture the public’s attention so. It is something that could only really occur when you are a country small in population who lives and trades shoulder-to-shoulder with a world leader more than 10 times the size.
I still have my copy of the agreement and the sector-focused summaries as well. At the time, the professional services firm, Ernst & Whinney, conducted a survey of North American business leaders on the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. It is interesting to look back at the results some 32 years later. Their findings showed business support for the Agreement was actually higher among Canada respondents at 59% compared to 37% in the U.S. with relatively few respondents outright opposing at 4% in Canada and 2% in the U.S. In this survey, fewer businesses in Canada did not take a position on the Agreement (37%) compared to 61% of U.S. executives surveyed. Further, fully 90% of Canadian respondents indicated some or a significant knowledge of the Agreement as compared to 73% of U.S. respondents. Free trade had Canada’s attention.
Since this first free trade agreement, I have had the privilege of working in each of the partner countries governed by NAFTA and now CUSMA/USMCA – Canada, the United States and Mexico from Toronto to Mexico City. I’ve also been able to look at what we have in North America from across an ocean living in Asia. Each country brings so much talent, expertise and culture to our relationship – we are so much richer for getting to know each other and working together. And now for the past five years, I have had the tremendous opportunity to promote and celebrate the relevance and importance of cross-border trade and investment between my home in Southern California and my ‘home and native’ Canada with some truly amazing people at MAPLE Business Council.
So this Canada Day is for me extra special. True – ‘birthday 153’ may not have the same ring as ‘150’ or a bicentennial, but the activation of NAFTA 2.0, what we now refer to as USMCA, on Canada’s birthday, is a special moment in time.
For if this star player of a trade agreement were a trading card, we can all say: we “need ‘em” and now we “got ‘em”.
Here’s to the power of trade to do and grow more together.
Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July!