Canada and 10 other countries including Japan have reached a deal - does not include the United States.

Bali & World News and Views Editor's Comments:

Bellefontaine making predictions in Italy 2008

One of my major predictions for 2018 made a few weeks ago was that the Canadian dollar would be one of the currences that would increase against the American dollar.

U.S. dollar will fall:

One of Bellefontaine’s major predictions for 2018 is that the U.S. dollar, which had started a downturn before Christmas will continue to fall in 2018 against many currencies such as the Euro, Canadian Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Australian and New Zealand dollars.

In just the last month the Canadian dollar has increased 4% already.

With this major, new, trade agreement between 10 Major Countries and Canada I believe that U.S.D. is on a major downturn and currencies such as the Canadian will increase substantially this year.

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Canadian industries split on new TPP trade deal


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Eleven countries aiming to forge a new Asia-Pacific trade pact will hold a signing ceremony in Chile in March.

AARON VINCENT ELKAIM/THE CANADIAN PRESS
STEVEN CHASE AND GREG KEENAN
OTTAWA AND TORONTO
PUBLISHED JANUARY 23, 2018UPDATED 1 HOUR AGO

Canada and 10 other countries including Japan have reached a deal on a new Pacific Rim trade accord that does not include the United States.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement should be a boon for Canada's agricultural sector, chiefly beef and pork producers, who want to gain the same access to the once-sheltered Japanese market that is already enjoyed by Australia.

Canada's dairy farmers and a major portion of the Canadian auto industry, however, oppose the deal, saying it makes major concessions to foreign competitors that will cost jobs in Canada without yielding sufficient reciprocal benefits.

This TPP accord is a revised version of the agreement reached in 2015 before U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the negotiations last year.

Canada, which has been widely portrayed as a hold-out in the Japan-led effort to strike a revised deal, agreed this week after initially balking last November. Trade experts say Canada was under pressure from Pacific Rim countries including Japan to get aboard the Asian trade pact or risk being left behind.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lauded the new agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as "the right deal" for Canada.

"Our government stood up for Canadian interests and this agreement meets our objectives of creating and sustaining growth and prosperity and well-paying middle-class jobs today and for generations to come," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Key sectors of the auto industry in Canada oppose the new agreement. Detroit-based companies and job-heavy Canadian parts makers say Canada should not be striking deals that will affect vehicle production in this country while Ottawa is still trying to renegotiate a North American free-trade agreement with the United States and Mexico that contains separate and now potentially conflicting rules for foreign content.

Auto parts makers oppose the TPP deal because it opens them up to more intense competition from low-cost countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia. The Detroit Three auto makers oppose the deal in part because it will eliminate tariffs on Japan-made vehicles entering the Canadian market while not removing existing non-tariff barriers in Japan that those companies say limit their access to the Japanese market.

The group representing Canadian pig farmers lauded the new deal, saying it provides improved access to markets with more than 461 million potential consumers.

"The [deal] is of tremendous importance to Canadian pork producers who export over 70 per cent of their products to over 100 countries," said Rick Bergmann, chairman of the Canadian Pork Council.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada, however, decried the agreement, pointing out that the new accord grants the same level of tariff-free access to this country's dairy market that Canada agreed to in 2015 when the United States was still part of TPP negotiations. Back then, the concession amounted to 3.25 per cent of domestic production.

Jacques Lefebvre, CEO of the Dairy Farmers of Canada, said it makes no sense to give as much tariff-free access in TPP talks when the benefits of U.S. participation are absent.

"The negotiating logic is really hard to understand," Mr. Lefebvre, said, calling Wednesday a "sombre day for the 220,000 Canadians who depend on the dairy sector for their livelihood."

News of the deal infuriated Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada, whose organization has long been concerned about potential TPP rules that could invite a flood of cheaper Asian-made products and jeopardize the future for 81,000 auto parts workers in Canada.

He accused Canada of agreeing to the new TPP deal in order to help beef and pork producers but at the expense of auto industry workers.

"We're signing a bad deal because we hope to sell more products that grow on four legs," Mr. Volpe said.

The TPP deal says that automotive parts only have to contain between 35 to 45 per cent content from TPP-member countries to qualify for duty-free access to Canada's market.

By comparison, existing NAFTA rules of origin stipulate that vehicles must contain 62.5 per cent North American content in order to avoid being hit with punitive tariffs when they enter the United States, Canada or Mexico.

Mr. Volpe said he has been told by federal government officials that the rules of origin in the TPP deal don't matter. "If the rules of origin don't matter, which is the argument I continue to hear, that flies in the face of the fact that the Japanese won't relent on them," Mr. Volpe said. "And if they don't matter, what are we negotiating on NAFTA right now?"

Conversely, the Japan Automobile Makers Association of Canada supports the TPP, which will cut tariffs for Japanese vehicles entering this country. Also backing TPP is Linda Hasenfratz, chief executive officer of global parts maker Linamar Corp., which is based in Guelph, Ont.

The Canadian government, trying to demonstrate what it achieved by holding off agreeing to TPP last November during talks in Vietnam, said it has obtained the following changes to the text:
Exemption for Canada’s cultural industries to shelter them from competition;
Suspension of changes to intellectual property rules that would have lengthened patent protection for cutting-edge “biologics” pharmaceuticals;
Suspension of provisions that would have allowed foreign investors to sue the Canadian government when an investment contract was breached or when authorization to invest is revoked by Ottawa;
The right to enforce breaches of chapters on labour and the environment.

John Manley, head of the Business Council of Canada, praised the Trudeau government for signing on to the TPP. It sends a message that Canada believes in liberalized trade with the fastest-growing region of the world, he said.

"It shows we favour a set of rules with Asia. And by saying Canada is part of TPP – without saying so – the Prime Minister is saying: 'I am not Donald Trump,' and that is a good thing," Mr. Manley told reporters in Davos.

The pact now carries a longer name, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This week's Tokyo talks were the first high-level talks since the leaders of the TPP economies met in November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Danang, Vietnam.

With files from Robert Fife in Davos and Eric Atkins in Toronto