Trade: Cast Aspersions and Trade Deal

trade: They also see the ugliness of the U.S. presidential race, where both candidates have cast aspersions on trade, including the massive 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to Hamilton Spectator. Not so in Canada. In their own country and across Europe, they see a backlash against the waves of immigrants flooding the continent from North Africa and the Middle East, and they hear loud rumblings against liberalized trade, including — in some pockets, at least — Canada free trade deal with Europe. That why, when French Prime Minister Manuel Valls meets with counterpart Justin Trudeau this week, he will want to discuss why Canada seems immune to all that noise, say French officials, speaking on condition they not be named. On the former point, Valls is keen to get an update on Canada plans for sending peacekeepers to West Africa to join the fight against Islamic militants. Over the course of meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa and Montreal, Valls wants to engage Trudeau on "the political atmosphere in the Western Hemisphere with the rising of populism, protectionism, and all these questions that we see rising in various countries," said one French diplomat. "But less so in Canada, so that why the prime minister is interested to hear about the Canadian situation and Canadian solutions." While some might see it as philosophical navel-gazing, another French diplomat said that thread runs through the very real issues Valls and Trudeau are facing: the rise of Islamic extremism, especially in Africa, and getting the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement done once and for all. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.