Doug's Blog

International Relations

This Sunday I leave for Washington, DC for a few days for a conference on American agricultural transportation and their related industries.  Some of you may know how hard I, and my colleague, Len Mitzel, have worked on supporting the growth of the Ports to Plains Corridor and the Canamex Trial, two transportation corridors that should allow the freer flow of goods between Alberta, the American Midwest, and Mexico.  On behalf of Minister Groeneveld, and as Parliamentary Assistant to Agriculture, I am attending this meeting to help build and foster relationships and to identify American issues to further advance our cause.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending some time with the Ambassador of Lebanon.  It was a great meeting as we discussed trade issues, or rather, the possibility of trade growth in all types of products, but especially in Agriculture products.  Sometimes we spend too much time looking to our American cousins for trade access.  They are a huge market that historically has been easy to access.  Recent border issues however, have shown that we need to diversify as a province.  Historically easy access to a large market has made us complacent in many respects, and we haven't developed the full skill set for international trade negotiations that is standard practice in other jurisdictions.

I have heard many people complain that politicians travelling to other countries are only and always just junkets for travel.  I am sure that can occur, but I don't believe that is always the case.  It is hard for a business owner to pick up the phone and make a cold call to another business in another country in an effort to expand their market access.  It may be relatively easy to do across the border to the south, but going international is an entirely different game.  In many jurisdictions it is almost required that governments meet governments first in order to build relationships so that businesses have access.  On top of that, when trade issues arise, I believe they are more easily resolved, just as they are within the constituency, if there is a face to face relationship that has already been developed.

So whether it is a trip to Washington, DC by me, or a trip from Ottawa by the Ambassador of Lebanon, personal face to face meetings are always the place where success starts and problems are averted.