Experts urge Ottawa to seek new trading opportunities within the Western Hemisphere

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain rose 0.8 per cent to $82.3 billion in September. Pumpjacks draw out oil and gas from wellheads surrounded by canola fields near Cremona, Alta., Monday, July 15, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

OTTAWA — Canada is missing out on economic opportunities in its own backyard, says a new report from the Canadian Council for the Americas.

“Latin America is the neglected ... close cousin of Canada,” said Janice Stein, a prominent geopolitics expert who co-chaired the report.

“Regions matter more in this world when the architecture breaks apart,” she said at a Nov. 18 event to release the report, called Beyond the Build.

The report urges Prime Minister Mark Carney to look beyond his government’s focus on building critical infrastructure to work on existing relationships and trade deals in the Western Hemisphere.

“Despite its reduced engagement recently, Canada is still admired” in Latin America and the Caribbean, said Canadian Council for the Americas president Ken Frankel. He said it’s “a region where Canada arguably has its largest and historically deepest footprint.”

He said Canadian industry and governments need to go beyond thinking of these countries as exporters who compete to sell commodities, and look at how to build economic value.

The report suggests Canadians could help build processing capacity in the region for agricultural goods like oilseeds, to boost exports and create jobs.

Canada also could harness its reputation for cybersecurity to offer services to countries lacking modern technology to fight fraud and malware, the report argues.

It also could do a better job of policing its ports to address foreign countries’ concerns about narcotics and organized crime, said Eric Miller, a consultant who runs the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group in Washington.

He said Ottawa should focus on getting the most out of existing relationships instead of trying to create brand-new links with countries and companies.

“It’s not about architecture as much as it’s about plumbing,” Miller said.

“In this moment when everybody else is pursuing radical industrial policy, you need a smart set of collaborations that allow Canada to sell more to the region and allow Canadian firms, and firms in Latin America, to build projects together in a way that we haven’t seen before.”

The report argues that as Canada seeks new trade deals in Asia, it should build on existing agreements with markets like Panama, Chile and Ecuador.

John Price, an analyst at Americas Market Intelligence, said Canada’s mining sector in particular needs more favourable regulations to help convince Latin America that Canadian firms can do resource extraction responsibly.

“After a decade of Ottawa overreach and a lack of diplomatic support for all mining industry abroad, this is a moment for Canada’s mining industry to revive itself,” he said.

Price said it takes too long to open mines in Canada, while Latin American governments look to Canadian firms for environmentally responsible mining but struggle to convince their urban voters that those firms aren’t bad actors.

“There is an urban voter who associates mining with dirty practices, with bad labour practices ... So there needs to be a counter-voice to that negativity,” he said.

“Canada has the track record. We didn’t come by it easily. It took decades of mistakes and decades of local community stakeholders correcting the operational ways of Canadian mining.”

Groups such as MiningWatch Canada have argued Canada lacks adequate oversight of its mining firms operating abroad, compared to European countries which have national action plans on business and human rights.

Price said Canadian firms should engage in joint projects with Latin American countries on critical minerals like lithium.

“Those governments will respond positively to an offer by Canada that includes not just mining, but also processing and even battery production,” he said, arguing many countries want to break China’s dominion over global processing of rare-earth elements.

Doug Saunders, a journalist specializing in migration, argued Canada could also reorient its focus from temporary workers to permanent residents from countries “that have surpluses of educated or skilled trades and trade-related professions.”

Jonathan Hausman, chair of the Canadian Council for the Americas, said Latin American countries “see themselves as geopolitical swing states” that will partner with countries that offer their voters economic benefits.

“They’re looking at a world in which there are other options,” he said.

Ottawa has promised a trade diversification strategy and Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu has said he wants to conclude a trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc that includes countries that don’t currently have a trade deal with Canada, such as Brazil and Argentina.

In an interview, Stein said Canada should take advantage of America’s worsening reputation in Latin America, driven by U.S. President Donald Trump ordering strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and talking of regime change in Venezuela.

Latin Americans are also wary of Chinese investments that come with large loans, limited transparency and an obligation to hire Chinese workers, she said.

“They don’t want to be confined to a choice between my way or the highway,” she said, “What this strategy does is lay out opportunities for Canada to partner in very practical ways with the region.”

She said this will require Ottawa to do the work of selecting its priority markets and linking companies with opportunities that will be seen locally as being mutually beneficial.

“This is about speed as well as about scale,” she said.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press