Word: tariff
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Roughly 70 percent of Canadian-American trade is already tariff-free, and the agreement will eliminate the remaining barriers over the next 10 years. The agreement also eases crossborder investment, installs new rules to govern trade for the service industry and gives the United States nondiscriminatory access to Canadian oil, gas and uranium...
Those words were President Grover Cleveland's coda after he narrowly lost the 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison on the issue of tariff reform. A century later, it is dismaying to contemplate the nation's march of progress toward the perfection of its democratic institutions. Imagine George Bush or Michael Dukakis having the temerity to claim that his campaign was waged on the battlefield of "honest principle." Or better yet, picture either candidate rising above "cowardly subterfuge...
Whatever the prospective economic gains, many Canadians fear the elimination of tariff and trade barriers with the U.S. will mean a far more portentous loss -- namely, national sovereignty. Canadians have long been worried that free trade would mean a kind of integration with America's economy that would wrest self-determination from Canadian industry. As far back as 1911, the government of Liberal Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier fell over a free-trade agreement -- an episode that gave birth to the slogan "No truck nor trade with the Yankees...
...depend on his ability to handle the trade issue. On a purely economic basis, many experts agree, the pact between the two countries, whose bilateral trade of $132.5 billion last year was the most of any two partners in the world, should be attractive to the public. The average tariff on American goods entering the Canadian market is 2.8% -- the figure is low because 65% of American imports pass duty free. On goods entering the U.S., the average tariff is only 1.2% (80% of Canadian imports are duty free), so Canadian consumers stand to gain more than their American counterparts...
...Reagan Administration argues that the textile industry is already among the most protected in the U.S. The average tariff on textiles and apparel is 18%, nearly three times the rate on other manufactured products. U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter calculates that the typical American family pays $238 a year more for clothing than it would if the textile business were not protected. Any new round of import relief will raise prices even more...