TPP would make it harder for Canada to innovate, Jim Balsillie warns
Ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would seriously impede Canada's future prosperity, according to Jim Balsille, the former co-CEO of Research In Motion and co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
"We're in an innovation deficit in this country and when you find yourself in a hole, the first rule is stop digging. What TPP does is it locks in that competitive advantage [for other countries] which makes it much, much harder for Canada to become an innovation nation," Balsillie told host Chris Hall on CBC Radio's The House.
"When we look at this 10 years from now, we'll see how we've locked ourselves in and how this was such a poor strategy," he said.
Canada's innovation problem
Balsillie argues one of the main issues with the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is that it would lock in the innovation "upper hand" that some countries have over Canada.
"Our innovation outputs have not grown in 30-plus years, in spite of hundreds of billions of input, and we're now competing, really, by lowering the dollar, which I think is a race to the bottom. And then we're entering into agreements where we lock in our competitive disadvantage," he said.
He is now pleading with the new Liberal federal government to come up with an innovation strategy.
"If you don't get it right, Canada's prosperity will continue to erode," he said.
"If you own valuable ideas and commercialize them, then yes, you get higher-paying jobs, more prosperity, more tax revenue to pay for the things we value so greatly in this wonderful country."
TPP would make it harder for Canada to innovate, Jim Balsillie warns - Home | The House | CBC Radio
Ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would seriously impede Canada's future prosperity, according to Jim Balsille, the former co-CEO of Research In Motion and co-founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
"We're in an innovation deficit in this country and when you find yourself in a hole, the first rule is stop digging. What TPP does is it locks in that competitive advantage [for other countries] which makes it much, much harder for Canada to become an innovation nation," Balsillie told host Chris Hall on CBC Radio's The House.
"When we look at this 10 years from now, we'll see how we've locked ourselves in and how this was such a poor strategy," he said.
Canada's innovation problem
Balsillie argues one of the main issues with the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal is that it would lock in the innovation "upper hand" that some countries have over Canada.
"Our innovation outputs have not grown in 30-plus years, in spite of hundreds of billions of input, and we're now competing, really, by lowering the dollar, which I think is a race to the bottom. And then we're entering into agreements where we lock in our competitive disadvantage," he said.
He is now pleading with the new Liberal federal government to come up with an innovation strategy.
"If you don't get it right, Canada's prosperity will continue to erode," he said.
"If you own valuable ideas and commercialize them, then yes, you get higher-paying jobs, more prosperity, more tax revenue to pay for the things we value so greatly in this wonderful country."
TPP would make it harder for Canada to innovate, Jim Balsillie warns - Home | The House | CBC Radio
