diplomacy

Wednesday December 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 22, 2021

One senator just blew up Joe Biden’s presidential plans

A single U.S. senator has detonated a political bombshell whose wide-ranging blast radius has touched his political party, his country and his planet.

December 14, 2021

Let us sift through political wreckage over the horizon and count the effects unleashed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

He has, until further notice, killed President Joe Biden’s hope of signing major legislation. Resurrecting the Build Back Better mega-bill could happen but it won’t be easy and it’s dead in its current form.

Because he holds the 50th vote in a 100-seat Senate, Manchin’s statement was a game-changer on multiple fronts.

It’s rocked Biden’s presidency, enraged the Democratic Party, imperilled about two dozen major initiatives affecting millions of Americans, undone economic forecasts, torched the U.S. climate plan, tossed into doubt a global tax plan, and, perhaps to Canadians’ benefit, paused a major Canada-U.S. irritant, a potential violation of trade agreements.

His move unleashed recriminations within the Democratic Party as some of Manchin’s colleagues castigated him; questioned his integrity; said he couldn’t be trusted; and some even raised money in fundraising letters trashing his decision.

February 23, 2021

That acrimonious climate is hardly propitious to getting Democrats back to the negotiating table to try saving bits of the 2,468-page Build Back Better bill.

There’s a silver lining in all this for Canada.

The Canadian government was deeply worried about the green rebates and preparing for an economic war over them. 

That’s because Build Back Better offered tax credits for the purchase of U.S.-assembled electric cars, which Canada and others called a violation of trade agreements that would kill jobs abroad.

It’s no accident a Canadian auto-parts representative happened to be meeting with Manchin’s staff on Friday, lobbying against the measure.

Flavio Volpe said it’s too soon to assume this irritant is gone. Ottawa appears to agree. Nobody in the Canadian government has been willing to comment on Sunday’s developments, suggesting they’re not final.

“I don’t feel like we’re out of the woods yet,” Volpe said. “We’re [still] on DEFCON 1 for Canadian prosperity.” (CBC) 

 

Tuesday December 14, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 14, 2021

Canada threatens U.S. with tariffs, partial suspension of CUSMA over electric vehicle tax credit

November 18, 2021

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has written to top U.S. senators threatening to suspend parts of the CUSMA trade agreement and impose tariffs on American goods unless U.S. officials back away from a proposed tax credit for American-built electric vehicles.

“We are deeply concerned that certain provisions of the electric vehicle tax credits as proposed in the Build Back Better Act violate the United States’ obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” Freeland and International Trade Minister Mary Ng say in the letter.

“The proposal is equivalent to a 34 per cent tariff on Canadian-assembled electric vehicles,” the letter says. “The proposal is a significant threat to the Canadian automotive industry and is a de facto abrogation of the USMCA.”

November 19, 2019

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in the United States.

Congress is proposing sizeable tax credits worth up to $12,500 US to buyers of new electric vehicles — as long as those cars are manufactured by union workers in the U.S.

Experts agree the tax measure would deal a major blow to the Canadian automotive sector, which is trying to attract new investment as the industry transitions away from internal combustion engines.

Freeland and Ng also say in the letter that they will “consider the possible suspension of USMCA concessions of importance to the U.S.” They specifically mention the possible suspension of “USMCA dairy tariff-rate quotas” and the possibility of delaying implementation of CUSMA copyright changes.

December 11, 2019

“To be clear, we do not wish to go down a path of confrontation,” the letter says. “That has not been the history of the relationship between our two countries – nor should it be the future.

“There is an opportunity to work together to resolve this issue by ensuring Canadian-assembled vehicles and batteries are eligible for the same credit as U.S.-assembled vehicles and batteries.”

Ng said the letter is Canada’s way of indicating that it’s prepared to play hardball on the trade file, although she would prefer to come to a compromise that avoids trade actions. (CBC) 

 

Thursday December 9, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 9, 2021

Canada joining diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

August 12, 2021

Canada will not send any official representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February as part of a growing diplomatic boycott by allies over China’s record of human rights abuses.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Wednesday after facing several days of questions over whether Canada would stand with allies that have already announced similar plans.

“We are announcing today that we will not be sending any diplomatic representation to the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games this winter,” said Trudeau, adding he does not believe the move from Canada or by allies will “come as a surprise” to China.

“We have been very clear over the past many years of our deep concerns around human rights violations and this is a continuation of us expressing our deep concerns for human rights violations.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has worked in the past with the Canadian Olympic Committee to try to keep athletes safe while competing abroad.

February 20, 2021

Calls have been growing over recent days as Canada’s closest allies have announced their plans not to send official representatives to the Beijing Olympics in February as part of a diplomatic boycott over China’s human rights abuses, particularly against the Uyghur ethnic minority.

The United States, the U.K., and Australia all announced their decisions this week.

Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden, an Olympic gold medalist kayaker, said a diplomatic boycott is one of the tools at Canada’s disposal and that he doesn’t think such a move would cause additional stress on athletes.

“My priority is to make sure that athletes have the opportunity to compete, and of their safety and security as well,” he said on Wednesday.

March 24, 2008

A diplomatic boycott refers specifically to non-athletes. It would see countries that agree to take part in a boycott pledge not to send diplomatic missions or representatives to attend the ceremonies and the events themselves.

Normally, participating countries typically do send official representatives from their governments.

For example, former Canadian governor general David Johnson attended the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for six days as the country’s official representative. (Global) 

 

Thursday November 18, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 18, 2021

Now it’s Biden, not Trump, giving Trudeau grief

The political bromance that was supposed to blossom between Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden has so far been a bust.

November 3, 2020

When Americans turfed Donald Trump in last November’s presidential election and sent Biden to the White House, you could almost hear a collective sigh of relief across Canada. A dark, dangerous cloud that had hovered over this country for four years had been blown away. With two progressive, seemingly compatible leaders at the helm of the North American neighbours a new era of amiable bilateral relations seemed guaranteed.

But that hasn’t come to pass. And so Prime Minister Trudeau will have his work cut out for him when he heads to Washington for Thursday’s summit with President Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Despite all his friendly smiles, Biden has yet to prove he’s a real friend to this country. Relations are strained and he’s making them worse. There’s an infrastructure bill packed with Buy American provisions that could bar Canadian businesses from bidding on billions of dollars worth of projects in the U.S. Biden loves it.

July 22, 2021

Another bill would offer huge incentives for American consumers to purchase made-in-the-U.S. electric vehicles instead of buying Canadian-manufactured models. Biden is all for it. If Congress passes the bill, car makers would obviously be more inclined to invest in American electric vehicle plants than Canadian ones. Then what will happen to all those dreams of a bright new Canadian electric-vehicle sector?

No wonder Flavio Volpe, president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, says the proposed incentives are “a bigger threat than anything pointed at us by Donald Trump” — including all the tariffs he imposed and the disruptive free-trade battle he engineered.

Meanwhile, the State of Michigan is still trying to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline which transports vital supplies of Western Canadian petroleum to Ontario and Quebec. If this threat to Canada has caught Biden’s eye, he’s done nothing about it. And if the list of bilateral sore-points isn’t long enough already, the American government moved this spring to double tariffs on Canadian lumber.

April 30, 2021

Clearly American protectionism has again reared its ugly head. And this despite the years of struggles during the Trump era to reach the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement which, by the way, does not permit those American electric-vehicle incentives.

It should be a given that Trudeau will raise these issues with Biden this week. But the president will be more preoccupied with pressures coming from within his own deeply divided country. After just 10 months in office, his approval ratings have plummeted. The control his Democrats have over Congress is precarious and could be lost after next year’s mid-term elections. And those Buy American incentives are widely popular south of the border with progressive Democrats, unions, consumers and, when it comes to electric vehicles, environmentalists.

February 23, 2021

Trudeau will be swimming upstream against powerful currents to alter these trends. He does, however, have leverage. With an increasingly assertive China responsible for Biden’s biggest international headache, Trudeau should remind him Canada and Mexico can help build a “Fortress North America” as an economic and political counterweight to that rising superpower. With Canadian and Mexican co-operation, Biden could also have a better chance of successfully fighting climate change, which would thrill much of his voter base.

Beyond these measures, Trudeau should adopt a strategy that worked with Trump: start sending his federal cabinet ministers and Canadian business leaders to meet with and lobby their American counterparts.

Considering all the differences between them, it may be too much to hope for another “Three Amigos Summit” this week. We’d settle for a co-operative, congenial neighbourly get-together. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday August 12, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 12, 2021

Canada Considers Countering Winter Games and Hostage Diplomacy

Canada is being urged by legal and international experts to apply diplomatic pressure on both China and the United States to secure the release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, following Spavor’s 11-year prison sentence by a Chinese court.

December 8, 2020

Spavor, an entrepreneur, was detained in China in December 2018 along with Kovrig on allegations of state spying, charges widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in connection with a U.S. extradition request. Meng’s formal extradition hearing began on Wednesday in British Columbia.

Since their arrest, Canada has been pushing for the release of Spavor and Kovrig. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau condemned Spavor’s sentence on Wednesday.

“This decision was made after a process that lack both fairness and transparency including a trial that did not satisfy the minimum standards required by international law,” Garneau said at a press conference, adding Canada was is ‘intense’ discussions with both Chinese and U.S. officials to free both Spavor and Kovrig, who is still awaiting trial in China.

February 12, 2021

Trudeau, in a statement, called the sentence unacceptable and unjust.

“For Mr. Spavor, as well as for Michael Kovrig who has also been arbitrarily detained, our top priority remains securing their immediate release. We will continue working around the clock to bring them home as soon as possible,” he said.

Since the arrests in 2018, Canada has decried what it calls “hostage diplomacy” and in February launched the ‘Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations,’ which has now been endorsed by 66 countries.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party leader has warned that it may soon be too dangerous for Canadians to travel to China for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (CTV) 

December 12, 2018

Speaking at a news conference on Ontario on Tuesday, leader Erin O’Toole said: “We are approaching a point where it won’t be safe for Canadians, including Olympic athletes, to travel to China.”

Diplomats from dozens of countries gathered at Canada’s embassy in Beijing on Wednesday to hear the Spavor verdict. The fate of a fellow Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, remains unclear.

O’Toole was speaking after a court rejected the appeal of a third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, whose prison term in a drug case was abruptly increased to death following Meng’s arrest.

March 24, 2008

Asked about the winter Games, O’Toole said: “Yes Canada should be considering a boycott.

“And I’ve said we’re going to be watching the decision very closely. Beijing has to know that the world is watching the genocide taking place against the Uyghurs. They’ve watched what’s been happening in Hong Kong and the situation with Mr Schellenberg, Mr Spavor and Mr Kovrig.”

He said Canada would have to think “long and hard on whether we reward a country like that with the Games”. (The Guardian)