Harper says Canada needs new markets beyond sluggish U.S.

Praxius

Praxius

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Dec 18, 2007
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Harper says Canada needs new markets beyond sluggish U.S. - World - CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today from India's bustling hi-tech centre of Bangalore that, re-election or not, U.S. President Barack Obama still faces an economy that will continue to grow slowly, meaning Canada must look to new markets.

"The reality is the United States, while it will remain our largest economic partner for the foreseeable future, it will likely continue to be a slow-growing economy," said Harper, who is on a trade mission in India. "[For Canada] to realize its full economic potential, it will have to diversify to countries like India that are growing and expected to grow much more rapidly."

"We can as a country continue to look at all these worrying developments around the world and fret," Harper said. "We're going to have a lot of these kinds of problems with us for a while."

"We have got to focus on the mid-term, and keep making the decisions and changes necessary in our own country so that we realize the opportunities to create jobs and growth regardless of what may happen in the U.S., Europe and other economies that have longer-term problems," the prime minister said..... (continued)
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There's brownie points for Harper.... at least he's figure out that putting your eggs in one basket (the US) isn't such a good idea, because when that country you rely on so much for trade and business hits a wall, you then have to scramble to find trade elsewhere before the people in your own country suffer greatly and you go down with them.

Spreading your trade around to many other countries allows for a buffer effect.... why Canada jumped so blindly into relying on most of its trade with the US for so long (obviously due to ease of proximity) I have no idea.
 
taxslave

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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The BC forest industry has found this out the hard way especially when the feds sold us down the river with the softwood lumber agreement. Fortunately the provincial government has worked hard with industry to open new foreign markets.
 
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