Bad idea. Really bad idea:
"Charest calls for stronger NAFTA modelled on EU"
Charest's complaint is that NAFTA is not working to Canada's advantage. Well, guess what Jean? No agreement between Canada and the US is going to work to Canada's advantage. Period. And trying to negotiate with the elephant for an EU-style arrangement is idiotic. The largest economy in the EU is Germany, with roughly 20% of the EU's total GDP. In contrast, let's look at the GDPs of the three NAFTA economies:
Canada: $958.7 billion (7.5%)
Mexico: $941.2 billion (7.5%)
United States: $10,990 billion (85%)
NAFTA Total: $12,890 billion.
(All figures in Purchasing Power Parity, from the CIA World Factbook. I assume they're also all US-dollar figures.)
The only possible arrangement that would work to Canada's arrangement would be to give Canada and Mexico equal representation to the US, which would be totally unpalatable to the Americans (with good reason.)
But I'd like to reiterate my position: If Mr. Charest would like Canada to join an EU-style economic bloc, there's one already available... It's called the EU. If Turkey and Greenland can be members, why not Canada? (Greenland isn't a member today, but was prior to having a hissy fit over fishing rights. I should learn more about Danish-Greenland relations.)
Moreover, I think recent events in the US have shown that, politically and culturally, the EU is a better fit for Canada. Canada would also fit well in the EU - we'd be one of the larger economies, with one of the highest per-capita GDPs. As for our economic dependence on the US, this isn't a good thing. Being part of the EU could help remedy that. Canada should be working to develop trade with Asia and Europe, and lessen our dependence on the US. This whole beef fiasco is just another example of that.
(Caveat: So long as the European Central Bank is run by Germans, we should avoid the Euro. Canada doesn't need another round of inflation-obsessives running our monetary policy.)
Would it anger the Americans for us to leave NAFTA? Of course it would. But, to coin a phrase, tough shit. The US has had a decade to make NAFTA work for the continent. Instead, it's been nothing but grief for Canada. I say, good riddance.
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Excellent idea, though one that seems unfortunately far from becoming reality. Despite our similarities with Europe, I think it's mostly technical issues that would stop this (in combination with not wanting to raise the Ire of The Beast, of course). All of our infastructure is geared towards compatibilty with American systems and not with European ones. Changing this would disrupt our interactions with the U.S., which consitute currently a good 80% of Canada's economic interaction.
I certainly agree we should be developing stronger ties with the EU, and weaning ourselves from our current U.S.-centric position. I would hope, too, that given the more international nature of digital standards, the technical issues will become less pressing as more of the industrial and commercial infastructure changes over to new technologies.
(I have a friend in economics who explained this all to me when I brought up the same idea to her, and I have no doubt she could have made the point more compelling, but there you have it.)
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