Canada please trade with BRIC countries!
October 4th, 2010 • Uncategorized
“Canada will enhance its innovation and productivity by greater engagement with the BRIC countries and other emerging economies – or so a paper from the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity persuasively argues.” (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/time-to-ramp-up-bric-trade/article1719509/?cmpid=rss1) The BRIC countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India and China, are considered emerging countries since they are at the same stage of economic development. In the ICP paper, written by Daniel Trefler, an economist at the University of Toronto, states that a free-trade agreement in 1989 led to productivity gains of 13 per cent. These great results means that if Canada would start or be more involved in free trade, especially with economically advanced countries, its productivity would go up drastically.
Canada should see trade agreements, trade offices and even political visits with the BRIC countries as an investment! Increasing their trading market could mean an exposure to more competitors and unfortunately it is unavoidable, however such an increase could also mean higher productivity of Canadian firms (as proved before). If Canada’s relationship with the emerging economies began to be stronger, the country could experience a boom in productivity growth, as a result of new opportunities of good exchange and expansion of trade.