Mr. Speaker, early last March, the U.S. government reactivated an extraordinary trade measure, the Super 301, which allows it to impose sanctions on any country which it considers guilty of unfair trade practices. In reintroducing the Super 301, the United States was primarily targeting Japan, a country with which it has a large trade deficit. Dissatisfied with the progress of talks on the opening up of Japanese markets to American goods, the United States is now using strongarm tactics to bring an unco-operative Japan into line.
The United States and several other countries have been complaining for years about the non tariff trade barriers erected by Japan to keep out foreign goods and services. Having grown impatient with the lack of progress made following Japan's promises to open up its markets, the United States recently set quantifiable and measurable objectives which Japan must meet in certain specific economic sectors. Japan refused to go along. The reintroduction of the Super 301 has been denounced by the Secretary General of the GATT, by a number of western politicians and by the Canadian Minister for International Trade as a trade practice that is not in keeping with the spirit and rules of international trade. However, U.S. requirements as to quantifiable objectives resemble a form of managed trade and these too are incompatible with free market principles.
In the past, the United States has used the Super 301 in response to certain trading partners whose practices were deemed to be unfair. These partners included Japan, Brazil and India in the late 1980s. Canada also got a taste of the Super 301 in 1990 when U.S. sanctions targeted Canadian beer exports.
Under the Super 301, the United States has until September 30, 1994 to compile a list of countries which it feels have erected unreasonable barriers to keep out American products. This so-called black list is based on the National Trade Estimates , an annual report released by the U.S. trade secretary on March 31 of this year. Measures will subsequently be taken against all blacklisted countries.
The latest edition of the National Trade Estimates contains 12 pages of complaints about a number of Canadian trade practices, primarily those involving beer, agriculture and domestic procurement policies. While the U.S. Super 301 is directly aimed at Japan, the fact remains that the procedure applies to any country found guilty of trade practices deemed unfair by the United States.
It is to be feared that, to appease the wrath of the United States, Japan could come to favour openly the access of Ameri-
can products and services to its market and this, at the expense of other trading partners, including Canada.
On the one hand, the verbal match between the Americans and the Japanese has subsided considerably over the past few months, Japan having expressed the intention of steering the course of deregulation, which should make access to the Japanese market easier for foreign products.
On the other hand, the war of words between Canadians and Americans has picked up. The Canadian ministers of international trade and agriculture had a few well-chosen words about the scare tactics used by the Americans. Disagreement is obvious from agricultural disputes concerning durum wheat, poultry and eggs for example, disputes which undermine trade relations between our two countries. A fragile and incomplete settlement has just been reached in the Canada-U.S. trade dispute on beer.
So, the fact remains that Canada is among countries that the United States complains about profusely. Therefore, nothing stops them from applying or threatening to apply their Super 301 to some specific sectors of our economy.
In fact, the question I put to the Minister of International Trade on March 25 last has not lost any of its relevance or topicality, since Canada appears on the list of countries found guilty of unfair trade practices in the latest American National Trade Estimates . The United States who have until September 30, 1994, to complete their blacklist, could still be tempted to add or threaten to add Canada to their list in order to pressure us into settling certain trade disputes in their favour.
Canada must not give in to blackmail and intimidation. It must continue to protect its economic interests. That is why the Bloc Quebecois urges the Minister of International Trade and the Minister of Agriculture to oppose steadfastly certain American claims considered illegitimate.
The Bloc also advises the government that it would be unacceptable to the people of Quebec and Canada to fall for the American trap and play off the interests of one region against those of another in hope of settling the dispute as a whole.