GHY Tradelines

(John Ibbitson — The Globe and Mail)

U.S. and Canadian negotiators have successfully concluded talks on a new deal to integrate continental security and erase obstacles to cross-border trade.

Negotiators have reached agreement on almost all of the three dozen separate initiatives in the Beyond the Border action plan, said sources who cannot be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The few remaining items mostly involve questions of wording and should be settled in time for an announcement in late September.

The most crucial phase then lies ahead, as both the Canadian and U.S. governments try to sell the proposals to their respective publics. A new poll suggests that in Canada, at least, that could be harder than it would have been a few years ago, although with a majority government, the Conservatives can pass any legislation that may be required, barring massive public opposition.

The stakes are high on the initiative, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama announced together in Washington last winter. Mr. Harper has told individuals in private meetings that he sees the Beyond the Border talks as the most ambitious advance in Canada-U.S. relations since the Free Trade Agreement of 1988.

Without an agreement, the non-tariff barriers that have increasingly obstructed the border since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks could remain in place and worsen. Read more here.

Related: Canada, U.S. Close to Joint Action on Border (Toronto Star)
 

(Industry Week – Agence France-Presse)

The America Invents Act shifts patents from a ‘first to invent’ to ‘first inventor to file’

The U.S. Senate on Sept. 8 passed legislation to drag the web of U.S. patent laws into the Internet age and spur high-tech innovation, sending the measure to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

In a rare show of bipartisan unity of purpose, the Democratic-held chamber voted 89-9 margin to approve the measure, which cleared the Republican-led House of Representatives by a similarly lopsided 304-117 margin earlier this year. “This is bipartisan, commonsense legislation that will spur the innovation that drives the American economy,” cheered Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a key author of the legislation.

“The America Invents Act will ensure that inventors large and small maintain the competitive edge that has put America at the pinnacle of global innovation,” he said, amid deep worries about 9.1% unemployment. Read more here.
 

(International Freighting Weekly – Stuart Todd)

Italian consortium will run new toll system, affecting around 800,000 lorries

France’s public agency for the funding of transport infrastructure, the AFITF, estimates that the “green” tax levied on hgvs will generate annual revenue  of €1.24 billion (US1.68bn) after it is introduced from mid-2013. […]

The tax will be levied on commercial vehicles of more than 3.5 tonnes at an average rate of €0.12 per km. It will affect around 600,000 French trucks and 200,000 foreign-registered vehicles, plying over 12,000km of French highways – the aim being to encourage shippers to use modes of transport other than road. Read more here.
 

(Transport Intelligence)

The next ten years will see a seismic shift in the balance of power in global supply chains, predicts John Manners-Bell, CEO of Transport Intelligence.

Chinese manufacturers are fast developing from low cost suppliers of cheap goods for foreign OEMs into global brands in their own right.

This shift has been largely prompted by the Chinese authorities who have encouraged companies to migrate up the value chain. This is sensible in an economic environment where inflationary pressures are making it increasingly difficult for Chinese manufacturers to compete on cost alone. There is also a political imperative which sees globalisation as the next logical step for Chinese companies. Read more here.
 

(Kennebec Journal)

It is regrettable that the World Trade Organization Appellate Body has ignored the reality and rejected a Chinese complaint against U.S. protectionist measures against imported Chinese tires.

Worse, the fact-denying ruling may even endanger the growth of global trade by playing into the hands of those U.S. politicians who tout trade protectionism as the silver bullet to fix the stubbornly high U.S. unemployment.

As the global trade watchdog, the WTO is obliged to do its best to keep at bay trade protectionism, which can easily thwart international efforts to lift the world economy out of the doldrums.

Unfortunately, the WTO ruling indicates otherwise. Read more here.
 

(Martin Cash — Winnipeg Free Press)

Considering the combination of Manitoba’s particularly large trucking industry and the province’s predisposition to spring flooding, it is a surprisingly well adjusted industry.

For instance, John Spacek, assistant deputy minister of Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation, told a trucking industry get-together this week that flooding this year damaged 31 bridges requiring $75 million in immediate repairs.

Every year, passage along the province’s main artery into the United States risks being disrupted and often is, causing costly and time-consuming detours.

But industry players know there are great demands on the public purse and understand that their wish-list of infrastructure work is likely never to be completed.

And the industry keeps growing, despite notoriously thin profit margins and an economic recovery that looks increasingly weak, especially south of the border. Read more here.
 

(Lisa Doherty — Handy Shipping Guide)

A Personal View from the Heart of the Tragedy

And so it seems the 10th anniversary of the twin towers tragedy in New York has passed relatively undisturbed by terrorist action despite raised security levels and a tangible feeling of trepidation. So how have the terrible events of a decade ago affected the freight industry, particularly at the heart of the disaster? A statement issued by GAC New York’s Port Manager Lisa Doherty, sums up the changes wrought by what has often been referred to as ‘America’s wake up call’. Here we publish the viewpoint of someone who has had to work within the rapidly changed landscape of port logistics in the Big Apple.

“Even before 11 September 2001, operations in the Port of New York and New Jersey always involved challenges. But after the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the demands faced by the shipping industry increased drastically throughout the United States. As a direct result of 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security – along with other local, state and federal agencies – implemented a raft of stringent regulations that have had a dramatic impact on the maritime industry.” Read more here.
 

(Alberta Farmer Express)

The federal government’s plans to strip the Canadian Wheat Board of its single marketing desk for Prairie wheat and barley have been welcomed by Canada’s partners in the Cairns Group as a “positive contribution” to global grain trade.

The group of 19 ag exporting nations, whose representatives wrap up their three-day ministerial-level meeting Friday in Saskatoon, specifically called out the Canadian government’s plans for praise in their joint end-of-meeting communiqué.

The federal government’s planned reforms were hailed in the communiqué as “a positive contribution to improving productivity, promoting growth and enhancing the multilateral trading environment.”

In a separate release from Canada’s Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, Australia’s Trade Minister Craig Emerson said that “following a remarkably smooth transition to an open market, our economy and farming businesses, both large and small, have benefited from an open grain market.” Read more here.
 

(World Trade Interactive)

President Obama announced Sept. 8 a broad plan to increase domestic employment. The president’s proposal made little mention of trade initiatives, in contrast to similar job-creating efforts announced earlier in the week by other interested parties.

In a speech detailing his plan, which will be sent to Congress the week of Sept. 12, the president made only passing reference to trade as one of several areas where the government can act to improve U.S. competitiveness. “It’s time to clear the way for a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama and Colombia and South Korea – while also helping the workers whose jobs have been affected by global competition,” he said.

“If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers. I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with the three proud words: ‘Made in America.’ That’s what we need to get done.” However, the president has delayed submitting FTA implementing legislation to Congress in an effort to ensure that an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program is also approved.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, put the expansion of trade and global commerce at the top of the list of things Congress and the Obama administration should do to “spur faster job growth.” Implementing the three pending FTAs, which the Chamber said could create 380,000 jobs, should be the first order of business.

The Chamber also called on policymakers to complete export control reforms, swiftly conclude negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, initiate talks on eliminating all tariffs on goods trade with the European Union, and pass a patent reform bill (which both the House and Senate have now done). Read more here.
 

(DFAIT)

The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, [Friday] issued the following statement after his meeting with the National Board of Directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in Nelson, British Columbia, where he spoke of the many benefits a Canada-EU free trade agreement will bring to hardworking Canadians in local communities from coast to coast to coast:

“A Canada-EU trade agreement will be Canada’s most ambitious and most significant trade initiative since the historic North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The benefits to Canada are expected to be enormous: a 20-percent boost in bilateral trade, a $12-billion annual boost to Canada’s economy, and about 80,000 new jobs.

“I thank the FCM for recognizing the clear benefits that a Canada-EU trade agreement will bring to our shared constituents and for identifying specific principles they would like to see reflected in an eventual agreement.

“I am strongly committed to continuing to keep Canadians informed of the negotiations as they progress, and to continuing to consult as extensively as possible with key stakeholders—including the FCM—as we build an ambitious agreement that delivers the greatest economic benefit possible to Canadian businesses, workers and families.

“The FCM is working hard to ensure that local communities continue to play an important role in Canada’s economic success. Our government is committed to continuing to work collaboratively with provinces, territories and local communities as we pursue our ambitious, job-creating pro-trade plan.”
 

(Gar Pardy — Ottawa Citizen)

Our privacy is on the table as Canada attempts to overcome U.S. security fears writes

Last February Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama signed a joint declaration Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Economic Competitiveness. The declaration stated both countries intended to “pursue a perimeter approach to security” in order to “accelerate the legitimate flow of people, goods and services” and to do so in ways that would “support economic competitiveness, job creation, and prosperity.”

There was little public discussion of the ideas in the declaration at the time but in recent weeks there have been several supportive opinion pieces on the subject. For example, one former Canadian ambassador to the United States called it “the first, potentially major, bilateral initiative in more than two decades.” [...]

The essence of the security measures in the Shared Vision declaration requires the transfer of information to the United States on, potentially, millions of people, most of whom would be Canadian citizens. Officials with the Canadian Shared Vision working group negotiating with the Americans, in briefing interested Canadians this summer, were frank in declaring that increased Canadian co-operation on security was the price to be paid for the removal of border restraints and constraints. Read more here.