Why Canada Entered Into Trade Agreement With United States

The Canadian government?s plan to get rid of the great American culture influence was one of many faults. There would be no way of carrying this out without disappointing much of the un-disturbed Canadian society, those who have grown comfortable with their surroundings and are appreciative of everything the United States has had to

Trade is the transaction of buying or selling of goods and services from one country to another. Because of trade, international consumers now have a wide assortment of products placed directly in front of them that their region cannot provide. For instance, one can walk around the Bronx and come to the zoo where there will be a giraffe from South Africa showcased for all to see. There are no safari like animals such as the giraffe freely roaming around America. This is all possible due to the trading system that has been

Furthermore, Canada remaining under the archaic British North America Act and not drafting its own constitution meant that the composition of the nation and the government was in the hands of the British Parliament, which denies the Canadians the luxury of dictating the structure and make-up of their own country. Now, one may say that Canada weakened its economic ties with Britain and was therefore no longer economically dependent on them, but the fact of the matter is that all we did was shift our dependence onto another nation, the United States. By 1926, America’s yearly investment in the Canadian economy had risen up to $3400 million (as opposed to $2000 million in 1920) mainly in the exporting of Canadian resources to the United States. In addition to that, American companies built “branch plants”, which were made to avoid having to pay trade tariffs, making this a pretty one-sided trade

Since the country’s conception in 1867, Canada has lived in the shadow of it’s southerly neighbour, the United States of America. Through the years, what started out as a country with very distinct culture has morphed and become Americanized. Historically speaking, American influence has had a great economical impact on Canada. Speaking about the Americanization of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, has said, “Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United states has produced…” This pressure has changed the way Canadians live and conduct business. This pressure has Americanized the Canadian economy. American culture has a very far reaching effect on Canada with many trickle down effects. Americanization of the Canadian economy has lead to the American control of the Canada’s corporate structure, Canadian dependence on American capital, turned the Canadian economy into a mirror image of the American economy, and has led to loss of

Canada is a democratic country. Canadians elect the parliament and the Prime Minister. But because Canada is a market economy, jobs, prices and the economic situation depends on big businesses. The fact that American companies own such a huge part of Canadian industry that it puts them in control of business in Canada. In other words a straight economical dependence, where Canadian people are no longer in control of things in their own country. A good example is a situation when American corporation buys a Canadian company. They take Canadian workers only for low paid positions. Most of the managers, accountants, sales executives who really control big business operations in Canada are Americans. Most of the times the specialists who work in American owned companies in Canada are also brought from America on contracts. In this case Canada is too depended to act the way it wants without support from the U.S.

The exchange of goods and services between international borders or territories is known as international trade. It allows countries to use excess resources, if the resource can be produced more efficiently then it can be sold cheaply. If a country lacks access to certain resources they can obtain that resource through the aid of international trade.

In the FTA, all tariffs on goods crossing the border were removed, and at the same time, opened Canada to U.S investment and vice versa. As suspected, the free trade issue was highly controversial among Canadians. Some Canadian businesses could not compete against U.S corporations, for these corporations were able to flood

Canada experienced several internal and external changes during the time period of 1945-1982; these changes were political, social and cultural. Firstly, a major internal political change occurred when Prime Minister John Diefenbaker introduced the first Bill of Rights to protect people’s equality before and under the law. A significant external political change occurred when the Canadian government signed the Autopact, which was a Canada-U.S. automotive products agreement that included conditional free-trade, creating a single North American market for automobiles and car parts. This agreement caused a huge shift in car sales and by 1968 40% of cars purchased in Canada were made in the U.S. An additional internal political change of major

While the government increased its control over “enemy aliens”, it also helped grow the economy through its increased control. The government needed to send munition and resources overseas to the allied soldiers and the Canadian soldiers as well. Therefore munition factories were established and other factories switched and became munition factories. With all the munition factories in business, it generated a lot of money within the economy (in 1914 Canada produced $28 165 worth of war supplies, then 3 years into war, Canada produced $388 213 550 worth of war supplies in 1 year). The significance is that before war was declared, there were little factories or plants that could produce the quantity of munition needed for war. So in accordance to the demand of war supplies during World War 1, Canada generated a lot of wealth in its economy by selling war supplies to Great Britain. The government also insisted many farmers to produce much more crops in order to feed the soldiers overseas. With the government’s insistence to increase production rate, Canada’s record of the largest wheat crop was made in 1915. The significance is that the war revealed some of Canada’s capability to produce crops. Canada’s economy grew due to the increased control of the government.

Brian Mulroney was Canada’s 18th prime minister and he had helped trading with America easier by trying to improve the relationship between the two countries . He won the election as the leader of the Progressive Conservative in June 1983. Brian had a lot he wanted to change,one of those things was making trade easier with Canada so that Canada’s economy would improve or at least stay stable. As a prime minister Brian had spent a lot of time helping Canada improve and since his election date,this took place between the years 1984 to 1993. Brian Mulroney became prime minister because people voted for him as well as the promises he had brought in with him being prime minister.

Trudeau set out to strengthen Canada through its economic might. As of 1971, approximately 40% of the Canadian economy was controlled from abroad, which allowed little benefit to Canada. To dismantle and shield Canada from more foreign investors, the Canadian government set up the Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA) in 1973. The FIRA proved to have positive effects on Canada and helped drop foreign investment in Canada from 37% in 1971 to 23% in 1986 (Axworthy 32-34). This created more power for Canadian citizens over their own economy. The drop in foreign investment directly translated into Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GNP) which surged during the Trudeau years, and rose from 75 billion in 1968 to 444 billion in 1984. This economic advantage put Canada into newfound power and they were invited to sit with many of the most powerful western countries, for the first time, at the Western Economic Summit in 1976. (Axworthy 20). The fiscal success the Trudeau government achieved assisted Canada’s economy to become more independent which strengthened the folds of Canadian life. The economic strategies of Trudeau helped Canada establish itself and become better known on the world

More so, many Quebeckers were finding greater economic opportunities in the United States, which fostered concerns about the economic isolation of Quebec, which could ultimately become part of the United States and lose any form of Francophone independence: “Quebec’s economic weakness could be seen already in the flood of emigration toward the United States” (Silver 46). In this case, the underlying debate about provincial rights in the new federal government had to be addressed to ensure that Ontario did not usurp the provinces under a primarily Anglophone government. These clashing interest define how the threat of British colonialism and the economic and military aggression of the United States posed a major threat to Cartier and the Bleu Parti (Smith 43). These political negotiations defined the major efforts to unify the nation under MacDonald and Cartier’s federal plan as the two major provinces of Canada. This political culture created an opportunity to provide greater legislative and principal authority to countermand the new central government created through the Canadian

Before the 1860s, confederation was not of importance. Although due to fear of the United States, problems between the divided British colonies, and belief that Canada’s mother country—Britain—was becoming less unenthusiastic to defend the British colonies, unity became of political importance. Together as a country, Canada would be stronger and obtain railway advantages that would overcome geographical boundaries

Investopedia.com states, “free trade is the economic policy of not discriminating against imports from and exports to foreign jurisdictions. (Buyers and sellers from separate economies may voluntarily trade without the domestic government applying tariffs, quotas, subsidies or prohibitions on their goods or services.)” In the previous decade, one of the many controversial subjects in the Canadian economy included whether or not it was beneficial for our federal government to eradicate free trade or open it up to other nations. During my research, I discovered that free trade agreements between Canada and other nations were not as beneficial as they may have seemed for they were often business and market oriented.

As the 20th century comes to an end, Canada is a transcontinental nation whose interests and representatives span the face of the globe and extend into every sphere of human behaviour. However this was not always the case. When the four colonies of British North America united to create Canada on July 1, 1867, the new country's future was by no means secure. Canada was a small country, with unsettled borders, vast empty spaces, and a large powerful neighbour, the United States. Confronting these challenges was difficult for the young country. Though Canada was independent in domestic matters, Britain retained control over its foreign policy. Over the next fifty or so years, Canada's leaders and its