Value Chains Dept: All this is by no means simply a matter of goods, but also of services. Moreover, foreign direct investment means that transfers of goods and services within multinational firms amount to international trade, though it may not be recognized as such, according to Globe And Mail. In the negotiations with the EU, the federal government has wisely included the provincial governments at the table. In previous free-trade negotiations, the provinces have been kept abreast of events, and consulted, but direct participation will prevent future difficulties, if agreement is reached; the provinces will be bound and the essential message of Danielle Goldfarb and Louis Theriault, the authors of Canada’s ‘Missing’ Trade with the European Union , is that policy-makers should no longer be as concerned as in the past with trade surpluses and trade deficits, especially as calculated according to the quantities of finished goods that cross borders. Extremely complicated supply chains, or “value chains” as in “value added” , mean that imports of goods of services are no less desirable than exports, because they are virtually inseparable. They cite a speech in April by Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, in which he said, “What counts is not the imbalances as measured by gross values of exports and imports, but how much value added is embedded in these flows.” Ms. Goldfarb and Mr. Theriault argue that Canadian businesses are taking far less advantage of Canada-EU relationships than Europeans are. Even so, they say that Canadian raw materials often add high value – something of a vindication for the proverbial hewers of wood. As
reported in the news.
@t globe and mail, trade surpluses
