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North American Leaders Confront Rising Tide of Protectionism
OTTAWA, Ontario — North America's leaders, at their summit in the Canadian capital, are confronting a rising tide of economic protectionism and nationalism.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday was hosting U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for the first time, and Obama planned to address the Canadian Parliament — the ninth American leader to do so and the first since Bill Clinton in 1995.
The meeting comes as Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, blames globalization for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs and threatens to extricate the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement, in effect since 1994. Trump on Tuesday also pledged that as president, he would withdraw from an agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations that has yet to take effect. And it was only last week that Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Canada's international trade minister, Chrystia Freeland, noted that the meeting of the three pro-trade leaders was taking place at a pivotal moment.
"This is a time when a lot of leaders in the world are talking about building walls," Freeland said in an interview with The Associated Press. "What you are going to hear from the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico is that we are a continent and we believe in building bridges. We really believe in the open society. Those are core Canadian values, open to immigration, open to visitors and open to trade."
Trump also has advocated building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trudeau pointed to the North American example of economic integration and warned of the risks of protectionism and nationalism.
"Better collaboration, better partnerships are a path to prosperity," Trudeau said Tuesday. "And that's a compelling example that we want to showcase at a time where, unfortunately, people are prone to turning inwards which will unfortunately be at the cost of economic growth and their own success."
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I bet that all the workers who have lost good paying jobs are really impressed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Oh yea lets take their advice.
Of course any country that would be concerned with it's border and it's workers must be bad.
To have the gull to try and control illegal immigration and keep jobs here...what nerve.
Foreign leader do not have the welfare of our country as any priority. They are making money and we are paying for it!
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Protectionism CANNOT prevent automation.
Yes, we lost jobs to lower paying nations in the past, but the thing that is destroying most older good paying jobs is now automation which isn't going away.
BTW, on a political note, "the Don" rails about our jobs being outsourced to overseas and loosing the steel industry, yet the BULK of his Trump goods are made OVERSEAS and just check where most of the steel for his Trump building came from. What a liar he is !
What has a possibility of bringing good paying jobs back is all the aging infrastructure in our nation that needs upgraded.
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Common Sense wrote:
I bet that all the workers who have lost good paying jobs are really impressed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Oh yea lets take their advice.
Of course any country that would be concerned with it's border and it's workers must be bad.
To have the gull to try and control illegal immigration and keep jobs here...what nerve.
Foreign leader do not have the welfare of our country as any priority. They are making money and we are paying for it!
I guess that you'd like to return to protectionism.
Care to articulate your reasons, or are you just mad?
And what, exactly is your problem with the Canadian PM?
Anger and bitterness are no substitute for economic policy.
By the way , no one said that being concerned about workers was bad. Just the opposite in fact. They just have a different idea about the way to achieve prosperity.
It might lead to better discussions if you would refrain from just making up stuff about those with whom you disagree.
Just a thought, but we have plenty of things to think about examining what political leaders actually say and do; we don't need to waste energy responding to what we wish that they said or did.
Last edited by Goose (6/29/2016 9:55 am)
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Pena Nieto stressed the need for economic co-operation among countries.
"We must acknowledge that isolationism cannot bring prosperity to a society," he said. "It is from a collective effort between the countries that are located in one same region."
Earlier, Trudeau pointed to the North American example of economic integration and warned of the risks of protectionism and nationalism.
"Better collaboration, better partnerships are a path to prosperity," Trudeau said Tuesday. "And that's a compelling example that we want to showcase at a time where, unfortunately, people are prone to turning inwards which will unfortunately be at the cost of economic growth and their own success."