CANADA ECONOMICS

US TARIFFS ON STEEL AND ALUMINIUM

REUTERS. MAY 4, 2018. Alcoa ready to resume labor talks for Canada aluminum smelter
Susan Taylor

TORONTO (Reuters) - Aluminum producer Alcoa Corp said on Friday that management at its Quebec smelter have notified the provincial labor ministry they are ready to resume mediated contract talks with the United Steelworkers union.

The smelter, which produces some 430,000 metric tonnes of aluminum annually, has been operating at reduced capacity by non-union workers since Jan. 11, when 1,030 unionized workers were locked out after their contract expired.

Aluminum markets, roiled for weeks by U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the massive Rusal aluminum producer he controls, calmed with the extension of a sanctions deadline to Oct. 23.

Prices, which hit a seven-year high of $2,718 per tonne on April 19, were down at $2,350 a tonne Friday.

The United Steelworkers welcome a return to contract talks, a spokeswoman said.

Union workers rejected the company’s final contract offer because it included a new, member-funded pension plan for all workers and concessions on seniority rights, the Steelworkers said.

Quebec appointed lawyer and former politician Lucien Bouchard as special mediator to the talks on April 23, saying it was very concerned about the dispute’s economic impact. Bouchard and another mediator, appointed in November, will set dates for future negotiations.

Alcoa, which holds its annual meeting May 9, owns 74.95 percent of the Becancour, Quebec smelter and Rio Tinto holds the remainder.

Reporting by Susan Taylor; Editing by Susan Thomas

REUTERS. MAY 4, 2018. When the U.S. goes it alone, what does the rest of the world do?
Ross Finley

LONDON (Reuters) - Before the financial crisis hit more than a decade ago, the easy way to test the global outlook was to apply the maxim that when the U.S. sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold.

Much more relevant now is any potential illnesses from a bout of inward-looking U.S. policy, namely imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports while keeping natural trading allies in limbo on whether or not it applies to them.

So far, nobody has a clear diagnosis but financial markets have smelled a whiff of change in recent weeks. Conventional wisdom, simple maths and plenty of recent evidence shows reduced global trade leads to reduced economic activity.

That suggests the United States, even though its share of the world’s economic output shrinks as emerging markets keep expanding more quickly, could give the world economy a lot more than a cold, depending on how far the White House wants to push it.

After an extended period of ceding ground to most currencies, the U.S. dollar has surged in recent weeks as it became increasingly apparent to traders and investors that in more ways than one, the U.S. appears to be going it alone.

Faced with a mostly solid expansion, very low unemployment and massive tax cuts just passed by Congress before the turn of the year, the Federal Reserve is now the only major central bank on a clear and certain path toward higher interest rates.

The U.S. is also the only economy among its industrialized peers that is both expanding rapidly and now generating around 2 percent inflation.

Not so for the euro zone, where a spurt of very strong economic activity in the second half of last year appears to be stabilizing in a lower gear, with inflation moving not toward the European Central Bank’s target, but further away from it.

With its key interest rates on the floor, the ECB is still buying tens of billions of bonds a month in economic stimulus and its first rate rise won’t likely come until well into 2019.

The Bank of England now looks set to hold interest rates steady at 0.50 percent on May 10, a massive about-face from a position it had been drumming into financial markets until very recently - that it was likely going to raise them.

While Britain has its own challenges in how to minimize the economic strain from its decision to leave the European Union, the overall change in tune from the BoE, which also targets inflation at 2 percent, is striking.

It is a widely-held view outside the BoE that Britain’s recent bout of inflation was mainly a result of a rise in import prices after the sharp fall in sterling following the June 2016 referendum to leave the EU.

Before the BoE raised interest rates for the first time in this cycle in November, a strong majority of economists called that out as likely policy error.

For open economies - and that list of course still includes Britain - inflation pressure overall is primarily driven by global forces, not domestic ones.

It is also unusual for any one major central bank in a group of closely interconnected economies - through everything from shared consumer behavior to supply chains - to be the only one setting a certain kind of policy for an extended period.

That is one reason why it is concerning to many that the United States still appears to be leaping ahead with the Fed on a solid path to higher rates while many other economies are stumbling.

The latest Reuters polls of more than 500 economists around the globe suggest optimism remains, but the possibility of a U.S.-China trade war threatens to dampen the momentum now in place after years of staggering amounts of stimulus.

The latest signs of a slowdown in business activity in Europe and elsewhere are not worth worrying about yet, according to BNP Paribas chief market economist Paul Mortimer-Lee.

He is more concerned about the age of the current U.S. economic cycle, and the threat that next year, synchronized growth in the world economy turns into “synchronized slowdown”.

“All this, together with recent market signals, reinforce our long-standing, high-conviction and out-of-consensus call that 2019 will see a significant slowdown, led by the U.S.,” notes Mortimer-Lee.

“The risk is that supply shortages could bring this forward, and also give a bigger boost to inflation. But we should not get too carried away with recent data, which have several characteristics of a current soft patch, not a bog.”

Editing by Andrew Heavens

REUTERS. MAY 4, 2018. As Trump's tariffs bite, small U.S. manufacturers begin to tap the brakes
Rajesh Kumar Singh

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Encouraged by a booming demand for construction equipment, Mike Haberman was planning in early February to hire at least 30 more workers for the manufacturing facility of his Gradall Industries in Ohio.

That plan now is shelved, Haberman said, because the cost of steel used in Gradall’s telescopic excavators and vacuum trucks shot up by one-third following President Donald Trump’s crackdown on steel imports. As steel costs account for 35 percent of his cost of production, he fears rising prices would not only hurt his export sales, but also give an edge to foreign rivals at home.

“At this point, we really need more visibility before we would bring in more workers,” he told Reuters.

When Trump signed a $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts at the end of 2017, supporters predicted businesses would respond this year with a burst of hiring and investment.

But Reuters interviews with more than a dozen small to mid-sized manufacturing executives and recent U.S. economic data reveal Trump’s protectionist trade policy is starting to lead some of them to take a more cautious approach, and forcing them to put new investment and hiring plans on hold.

While these manufacturers lauded the administration’s push to make U.S. businesses globally competitive through measures such as the tax overhaul and a deregulation drive, they complained that the steel and aluminum tariffs along with the escalating trade spat with China were undercutting those benefits.

Trump has proposed a separate 25 percent import tariff on some 1,300 Chinese products to try to force changes in Beijing’s intellectual property practices. If the tariff comes into effect, they would upend Haberman’s components supplies from China, he said.

The steel and aluminum import tariffs imposed in March were designed to protect the American industries and its workers from global overcapacity and unfair trade practices. Trump justified the measure saying protecting the industries was important to the country’s national security. He argued that the tariffs would re-open closed mills, sustain a skilled workforce, and maintain or increase production.

But the tariffs, which came into effect on March 23, have driven up raw material costs and caused supply delays, rendering the manufacturers’ “Made in the USA” products uncompetitive against their foreign rivals, according to these manufacturing company executives.

Mike Schmitt, president at The Metalworking Group in Ohio, said his metal fabrication company has lost around a thousand hours repricing and renegotiating contracts because it can’t honor the old prices.

The company has delayed plans to spend around $500,000 on equipment this year and bring on new staff to expand.

“It’s going to be 2019 before we buy anything because we don’t have enough confidence to do it. There’s just too much uncertainty out there right now,” Schmitt said.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey on Tuesday showed how widespread that sentiment is: manufacturers slowed down hiring for a second straight month in April amid complaints that the tariffs have brought business planning to a standstill.

Nicole Sahin, chief executive at recruitment firm Globalization Partners in Boston, says a large multi-national client of hers recently pulled back from an $800 million investment in a U.S.-based energy project after rising steel costs made the investment not viable.

Sahin said all her clients who are exposed to steel prices have put their investment plans on hold because of the business “uncertainty” caused by the tariffs.

LIMITED OPTIONS

Big manufacturers are looking to manage cost increases by controlling expenses through their supply chains or raising prices for their products.

But not all small manufacturers have those options.

Take Florida Marine Tanks, which makes fuel, water and holding tanks for yachts. Company President Orestes Monterrey said aluminum accounts for 70 percent of the company’s cost of production, which has risen 26 percent since December.

When the Henderson, North Carolina-based company tried to pass along rising aluminum costs, customers slowed down orders.

The company has shelved a $2.2 million plan to expand its North Carolina facility and hire 46 new workers. It also fired four workers that were hired in December for the project, Monterrey said.

“(We) don’t know where business is going to go,” said Monterrey. “Customers are reducing their orders.”

In a March study, Trade Partnership Worldwide, LLC estimated the steel and aluminum tariffs would result in a net loss of nearly 470,000 U.S. jobs. The proposed tariffs on Chinese imports, the Washington-based consulting firm estimates, would put 134,000 jobs at risk.

“There is just no way to sustain expansion, develop new products and bring on new employees - as we thought we were going to do this year,” said Troy Roberts, chief executive officer at Colorado Springs-based Qualtek Manufacturing.

Roberts’ company provides stamped parts to the medical device and aerospace industries. Qualtek was planning to invest up to $1 million in new capital equipment and expand its workforce by 17 percent this year.

Even though the company purchases domestically-produced steel and aluminum, Roberts says the metal tariffs are projected to increase Qualtek’s raw material costs by $300,000, putting the investment and workforce expansion plans in jeopardy.

TIGHT SUPPLIES, COST CUTS

While the tariffs have increased the demand for local steel and aluminum, domestic mills have not yet fully ramped up their capacity. Data from the American Iron and Steel Institute shows capacity utilization at the steel mills has gone up by just 1.1 percentage points from the same period last year.

As a result, the lead time for delivery of raw material is going up. Roberts of Qualtek Manufacturing says his lead time has doubled to 14 weeks. In Florida Marine Tanks’ case, a shipment scheduled for early March hasn’t arrived yet.

Trump has postponed a decision on whether to withdraw temporary exemptions from the metals tariffs on Canada, the European Union and Mexico until June 1, and has reached agreements for permanent exemptions for Argentina, Australia and Brazil.

The imports from the exempted countries, however, will be restrained by quotas. Manufacturers are not sure how the quotas will be implemented or will curb rising metal prices.

Faced with supply delays, some manufacturers have decided to pay the tariffs and get the metals from overseas.

The Vollrath Company in Wisconsin, which makes cookware and bakeware items, has started importing aluminum from China after local mills couldn’t meet its demand.

The company’s chief financial officer, Steve Heun, says the tariffs, including the latest countervailing duties, will make its aluminum products at least 20 percent more expensive than those of its foreign rivals, and are estimated to increase its input costs by as much as $6 million a year.

Its working capital requirements have gone up by 10 percent as the company is now forced to hold more inventory, Heun said.

Vollrath employs 1,000 people in Wisconsin and had plans to hire 25-50 workers this year. But with the tariffs weighing on its profitability, Heun says the company is looking for ways to trim costs and has halted new hiring.

“If there was any positive feeling about the tax overhaul, clearly, it’s been wiped out,” said Heun.

Additional reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Joe White and Edward Tobin

Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions. May 4, 2018. Strong support for Réseau Trans‑Al, a business network tied to the aluminum industry. Government of Canada to invest more than half a million dollars for the network’s activities

Saguenay, Quebec – The development of sectoral and regional expertise in aluminum processing plays a major role in growing this industry, which provides thousands of well-paying skilled jobs. By supporting the creation of technology and business partnerships, the Government of Canada is helping ensure the vitality of businesses in this sector and optimizing the potential of this industry on the international market.

Réseau Trans-Al, a network of Quebec aluminum manufacturing enterprises and suppliers, will be receiving a non-repayable contribution of $564,000 to fund its technical, technological and business development activities and projects.

The contribution awarded through CED’s Quebec Economic Development Program was announced today by Richard Hébert, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean, acting on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CED.

Jacques Caya, President of the organization, welcomed the support, stating that CED’s financial assistance is essential in enhancing innovation capacity, digital technology use, business development and the expansion of businesses in this sector, which has high growth potential.

A critical link in the aluminum processing sector, Réseau Trans-Al has been in operation since 1997 and has more than 200 members, the vast majority of which are SMEs and businesses in the industry across various Quebec regions.

Quotes

“Through its innovative technical, technological and business approaches, Réseau Trans-Al is an aluminum industry hub. CED’s contribution reaffirms the organization’s central role with SMEs and the industry overall.”

- Richard Hébert, Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean

“In line with our commitment to grow the Canadian economy, the Government of Canada’s goal is to provide better support for businesses that want to prosper through innovation and the development of new products and new markets. The funding announced today will definitely contribute to that goal.”

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister responsible for CED

“This funding is a vote of confidence in our organization and in all businesses in the aluminum processing sector. The contribution announced today will help new initiatives emerge by building on the know-how and competitive advantages of SMEs and key players in the industry, which is so important for our economy.”

- Jacques Caya, President, Réseau Trans-Al

Quick facts

• In 2017, the Canadian steel industry employed more than 23,000 Canadians and contributed $4.2 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). The Canadian aluminum industry employed 10,500 workers while contributing $4.7 billion to Canada’s GDP.
• These industries are vital suppliers to the Canadian manufacturing, energy, automotive and construction industries.
• CED is one of the six regional development agencies under the responsibility of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
• For more information on CED’s key directions until 2021, consult Strategic Plan 2021 or visit www.dec-ced.gc.ca.
• Budget 2018 proposes to provide an additional $511 million in funding over five years on a cash basis, starting in 2018–2019, for the regional development agencies to support the Innovation and Skills Plan across all regions of Canada.
• Of the $511 million, $99 million will be allocated to CED, of which $22 million will go toward supporting the new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://www.canada.ca/en/economic-development-quebec-regions/news/2018/05/strong-support-for-reseau-trans-al-a-business-network-tied-to-the-aluminum-industry.html

US - CHINA

THE GLOBE AND MAIL. BLOOMBERG. MAY 4, 2018. U.S. demands China slash trade gap by $200-billion as talks end with key issues unresolved

Two days of U.S.-China trade discussions ended in Beijing on Friday with an agreement to keep on talking, and little else.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday afternoon that both sides reached a consensus on some trade issues, without providing details. They also acknowledged major disagreements on some matters and will continue communicating to work toward making more progress.

The U.S. delegation, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, asked China to decrease the trade deficit by at least $200-billion by the end of 2020 compared with 2018, according to a sent ahead of the trade talks in Beijing that was document seen by Bloomberg News. By early afternoon Friday neither side had flagged plans to give a briefing on the discussions, and the American team was scheduled to depart Friday evening.

Earlier, Mnuchin said that the U.S. and China had been having a “very good conversation,” without elaborating. While China hasn’t indicated any detail on what it may be prepared to agree to, a senior official sounded a defiant tone ahead of the meeting, and the state news agency warned against “unreasonable demands.” Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a Friday afternoon briefing there’s no specific information on the talks.

The closed-door discussions between President Donald Trump’s economic team and officials in Beijing began Thursday, amid a ban on China’s largest media outlets reporting any material beyond official press releases related to the talks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. tempered expectations of a major breakthrough from the discussions, which were expected to focus on concerns over China’s state-driven economy, forced technology transfers and America’s widening trade deficit with China. Underscoring the friction, a U.S. report released Thursday showed the trade gap with China surged by 16 per cent to more than $91-billion in the first quarter of this year.

A senior Chinese government official, who asked not to be named, said before the talks the government won’t accept U.S. preconditions for negotiations such as abandoning its long-term advanced manufacturing ambitions or narrowing the trade gap by $100-billion.

During the second day of discussions, across town at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, President Xi Jinping indicated China will continue to embrace globalism, saying it wants to actively take part in world governance. Those who reject the world will be rejected by the world, he said in a speech commemorating the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth.

Analysts weren’t optimistic about potential outcomes beyond the two countries possibly delaying on the threat of tit-for-tat tariffs.

“Our expectations are low. The U.S. negotiating position is unclear — indeed it’s not even clear if the U.S. representatives have a unified view on what they want to achieve,” Tom Orlik, chief economist at Bloomberg Economics in Beijing, wrote in a report. “The Chinese side has already made concessions and won’t rush to make more. The past few weeks have shown that markets can be roiled by tariff chatter, so that’s certainly a possibility in the next couple of days.”

The meetings are an opportunity for the two sides to exchange their views after the official channel for U.S.-China high-level economic talks were suspended last year.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on as much as $150-billion of Chinese goods to punish China over its IP practices if the talks fail to yield progress, a move that China said would spark retaliation in equal measure on American exports.

The U.S. is also looking at ways to crack down on Chinese investment in the U.S. in an effort to balance the scales and protect sensitive technology. China has announced tariffs on $3-billion of U.S. goods such as pork and wine in retaliation for new global steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Trump. The U.S. levies were aimed at tackling China’s overcapacity.

Trump sounded a more positive note as his economic team entered the talks in Beijing. “Our great financial team is in China trying to negotiate a level playing field on trade!,” Trump tweeted as they arrived in Beijing. “I look forward to being with President Xi in the not too distant future. We will always have a good (great) relationship!”

Xinhua said in a commentary Wednesday that the U.S. should show sincerity in trade talks instead of making unreasonable demands. It said China will take retaliatory steps of equal intensity if the U.S. puts tariffs on its goods after the talks.

The discussions should involve equal-footed consultation and mutual respect, and work toward mutual benefits, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters in a regular briefing on Thursday. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, Xi’s top economic adviser, is leading his nation’s delegation.

REUTERS. MAY 4, 2018. U.S. to pitch for higher lending rates at ADB meet as region eyes China
Stanley White

MANILA (Reuters) - The United States will argue for higher lending rates and weaning some countries off development lending at an Asian Development Bank meeting this weekend, a U.S. Treasury official said on Friday.

The proposed changes at the ADB’s annual meeting are similar to reforms the United States argued for at the World Bank last month that led to an increase in lending rates for developing countries with higher incomes.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had chided the World Bank’s lending to higher-income countries such as China, saying they should “graduate” to non-concessional loans.

“Some of the reform priorities that we pursued at the World Bank a few weeks ago are also things that we are prioritizing in the strategy discussion here,” a senior U.S. Treasury official told reporters on the sidelines of the ADB meeting in Manila, the Philippine capital.

“Among those is a commitment to improving and developing a differentiated pricing strategy that encourages countries to seek financing from markets, rather than the bank, when those alternatives exist,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He did not specifically name China, but said countries now have better access to capital markets and the ADB should wean them off its development loans. Washington also preferred that taxpayer money go to the poorest countries, the official added.

The ADB, a Manila-based development lender whose major donors are Japan and the United States, finds itself at a crossroads as its members gather to debate a new strategy to run until 2030.

Founded in 1966 with a mandate to lift hundreds of millions of Asians out of poverty, the ADB has 67 member countries ranging from struggling Bangladesh and Pakistan to booming China and India.

China is trying to assert itself on the global development lending stage with its “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure initiative, and the creation of a new development lender called the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

U.S. Treasury officials had complained at a World Bank meeting last month that the bank was lending too much to China and other bigger emerging markets.

The bank agreed to reforms that will raise borrowing costs for higher-middle-income countries, including China.

“China is forecast by IHS Markit to become a high-income country before 2023 under the World Bank per capita income thresholds, signaling that World Bank and ADB lending to China would inevitably be scaled back,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist for IHS Markit.

“It is likely that China would also seek to play a greater role...providing development financing for developing countries, rather than as a recipient of development assistance.”

China’s new programs could become serious rivals to the ADB and the World Bank, some economists say. China’s moves to expand its international influence also come amid heightened trade policy tension with the United States.

ADB President Takehiko Nakao, however, has played down the threat of competition between the ADB and AIIB, instead emphasizing ways the two can cooperate.

Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Darren Schuettler

REUTERS. MAY 3, 2018. Trump team demands China slash U.S. trade surplus by $200 billion, cut tariffs
Sue-Lin Wong, David Lawder

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has demanded that China cut its U.S. trade surplus by $200 billion, end subsidies for advanced technology industries and sharply cut import tariffs to U.S. levels, two people familiar with U.S.-China trade talks said on Friday.

The lengthy list of demands was presented to Beijing prior to the start of talks Thursday and Friday between top-level Trump administration officials and their Chinese counterparts to try to sort out disputes that have threatened a damaging trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

The talks ended with China’s Xinhua news agency describing them as “constructive, candid and efficient” but with disagreements that remain “relatively big.”

The U.S. side has yet to give its account of the talks, and there was no sign that President Donald Trump would back off on his threat to impose tariffs on up to $150 billion in Chinese goods over allegations of intellectual property theft.

Speaking with reporters in Washington on Friday, Trump said he was determined to bring fairness to the U.S.-China trading relationship.

“We’re going to have some incredible trade deals announced,” Trump said, adding he had “great respect” for China’s President Xi Jinping. “That’s why we’re being so nice, because we have a great relationship.”

The U.S. delegation, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, has left China.

China during the meetings asked that the United States ease crushing sanctions on Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Washington’s demand for a $200 billion cut from China’s U.S. goods trade surplus doubles Trump’s previous request for a $100 billion cut. China had a record goods trade surplus of $375 billion in 2017.

Trump has also demanded “reciprocity” between U.S. and Chinese tariffs, frequently complaining about China’s 25 percent passenger vehicle tariff while the equivalent U.S. tariff is 2.5 percent.

The U.S. team demanded that China lower tariffs to levels no higher than those imposed by the United States, the people familiar with the demands said. The delegation also asked China to halt subsidies for advanced technology linked to its “Made in China 2025,” the sources said.

The 2025 industrial plan seeks to upgrade China’s manufacturing sector to more advanced products, including information technology, semiconductors and aircraft - sectors where the United States is highly competitive.

Chinese officials believed the U.S. proposal was “unfair,” the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people with knowledge of the negotiations.

“I think the U.S. is asking for the impossible. Reducing the deficit by $200 billion by 2020 is quite an unrealistic demand, but it may also be a negotiation tactic to start high first,” said Tommy Xie, economist at OCBC Bank in Singapore.

BEIJING OFFERS

In a proposal submitted by the Chinese side, Beijing offered to increase U.S. imports and lower tariffs on some goods, including cars, according to the sources.

But China requested that the United States treat Chinese investment equally under national security reviews, stop issuing any new restrictions on investments, and halt a proposal to implement 25 percent tariffs under its “Section 301” probe.

China also offered to reconsider anti-dumping duties on U.S. sorghum, according to the proposal.

Xinhua’s statement said there had been exchanges of opinion on intellectual property protections, expanding U.S. exports and bilateral services trade. It gave no indication of what actions might be taken but said the two sides committed to resolve their trade disputes through dialogue.

The state news agency said U.S. negotiators agreed to bring up the ZTE sanctions with Trump after new representations from the Chinese side. ZTE was hit last month with a seven-year ban on American companies selling components and software to it after the U.S. Commerce Department found ZTE failed to comply with an agreement to settle breached U.S. sanctions on Iran.

“My impression was that (the talks) didn’t go well given the rhetoric,” said Kevin Lai, senior economist at Daiwa Capital markets in Hong Kong. “I think the divide is still very big.”

In an editorial on its website, widely read Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times cited people close to the talks as saying the Chinese “hit back hard” at U.S. criticism, letting them know that China won’t give in.

The United States has proposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods under its “Section 301” intellectual property probe. Those could go into effect in June following the completion of a 60-day consultation period, but activation plans have been kept vague.

China has said its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, including soybeans and aircraft, will go into effect if the U.S. duties are imposed.

PUNITIVE ACTION

Trump on Thursday praised his relationship with Chinese President Xi as the U.S delegation began their talks, which were held at a state guest house in the western part of the Chinese capital.

U.S. complaints about Chinese intellectual property abuses are at the core of the current dispute. The Trump administration says U.S. companies lose hundreds of billions of dollars annually to China’s theft of trade secrets.

Some economists noted that the deficit with China was the natural result of the large amount of manufacturing assembly of U.S. products, such as iPhones, that takes place in China.

“As long as China remains the assembly hub of the world, it’s always going to have a large trade surplus with developed consumer countries like the U.S. and the E.U. and that’s not necessarily a problem,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics.

Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong and David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci

AVIATION

The Globe and Mail. 4 May 2018. Bombardier strikes Canada’s richest land deal with sale of Toronto site to pension fund for $817-million. Sale to pension fund adds to company’s cash reserves as it revamps commercial aircraft business
NICOLAS VAN PRAET

They are going to have quite an uphill battle to be able to develop it to extract the value out of it.

BILL ARGEROPOULOS, HEAD OF RESEARCH AT VISON YOUNG

An aerial photo of the Downsview site, looking south. The investment arm of the pension plan for federal public servants and the Canadian Forces will take control of 371 acres of largely vacant land in northwest Toronto.

Bombardier Inc. has struck a deal to sell its Downsview site in Toronto for about US$635-million ($817-million), further shoring up its cash reserves as it reshapes its commercial aircraft business after a brush with bankruptcy three years ago.

The shares rose 1.8 per cent to $4 in Toronto trading on Thursday. They have gained 35 per cent this year.

The plane and train maker said on Thursday it will sell the sought-after property in Canada’s biggest city to Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP) for net proceeds of US$550-million after costs.

The sale, combined with proceeds of an equity issue in March, buoys Bombardier’s cash by more than US$1-billion and gives it more power to buy back previously sold assets or speed up debt repayment, among other opportunities.

“Once we get past 2018, we’ll have an opportunity to allocate this capital properly with the greatest return,” said John Di Bert, Bombardier’s chief financial officer.

“There are many options.”

Alain Bellemare, who took over as chief executive officer of Bombardier in February, 2015, has pulled the company back from the brink after cash-sucking investments in three major aircraft development programs forced it to consider bankruptcy. He has since shored up liquidity, cut jobs and struck a partnership with Airbus SE to take control of the C Series, a deal expected to close before the end of the second quarter.

The CEO plans to rebuild Bombardier’s earnings power by boosting revenue to $20-billion by the end of 2020. Selling more business jets is the key to that. The company also gave more clarity on Thursday about how commercial aircraft fit into the picture.

After exploring avenues to sell its Q400 turboprop and Canadair CRJ regional jet businesses, Bombardier has decided to keep the two franchises while partnering with Airbus on commercial aircraft bigger than 100 seats. “We’re not thinking about exiting” the turboprop and regional jet business, Mr. Bellemare said. “We’re thinking about growing.”

The company announced a new order from American Airlines Group for 15 Canadair CRJ900 regional jets and options on another 15 planes on Thursday, a good start to the CRJ reboot. The value of the deal based on published list prices is US$719million, but customers buying multiple aircraft typically get discounts.

Bombardier’s Q400 backlog stands at 55 planes, including a recent order from Ethiopian Airlines.

The company estimates the market for turboprops at 2,500 planes over the next 20 years, much of it from emerging markets. Bombardier will continue to do final assembly of the aircraft at Downsview as it evaluates other production sites. The PSP deal gives the plane maker rights to use the property for up to five years.

Mr. Bellemare struck a confident tone when meeting reporters and investors at Bombardier’s annual meeting on Thursday. “Bombardier is on the right path to reclaim its position as a global industrial leader,” he said. “We have rebuilt our finances and cemented our foundations. Now we’re focused on execution and growth.”

Management has consistently beaten analyst estimates on profit before earnings and taxes, rebuilding the company’s Bay Street credibility. First quarter results on Thursday further bolster the company’s prospects. The company eked out a profit of US$44-million or 1 cent per share as sales climbed 12 per cent to US$4-billion. Orders for Bombardier business jets were at their strongest pace in three years.

[This is] a constructive start to the year with encouraging signs of pick-up in demand in business aviation,” BMO Nesbitt Burns analyst Fadi Chamoun said in a note.

A year ago, the company was under severe pressure from the public and shareholders after its decision to hike the 2016 pay of its executives by 50 per cent after taking more than US$1-billion in public aid. Over 12 months, much of that indignation has turned into polite encouragement as retail and institutional investors weigh the company’s progress.

All 14 directors the company proposed for election were accepted with little opposition. And a 12-per-cent increase in pay for top executives also won near-unanimous support, even if some shareholders expressed frustration that the fruits of Bombardier’s turnaround are not yet spilling down to them in a significant way.

“Your salaries are always rising while we’re left” begging for a dividend, one retail investor said. “I mean, how many millions of dollars does it take for a CEO to be content?” Pierre Beaudoin, Bombardier’s chairman, said the company would start

paying down its US$9-billion debt before introducing a dividend. It does not have a major repayment to make until 2020. Bombardier had US$4-billion of shortterm capital resources available at the end of March. Proceeds from the Downsview sale would add to that.

Bombardier could use the cash to buy back the roughly 30-per-cent stake in its train business it sold to the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in 2016. Bombardier has rights to buy back the stake starting in February, 2019, at fair market value or a minimum three-year, 15-per-cent compounded annual return.

It could also plow money into a new aircraft development program, although it seems in no rush to do so. The Montrealbased plane maker is just coming out of a near-crippling, decade-long airplane development cycle and will be shy to commit capital to a new airliner unless it sees guaranteed returns.

In a parting message to Bombardier’s leaders on Thursday as he takes his leave from the company after 55 years, Laurent Beaudoin, Pierre’s father and the man credited with building the company into a multinational manufacturer, urged them to start thinking about the next product to keep workers motivated.

“We can’t allow ourselves to be complacent,” he said.

The elder Beaudoin also vowed his family would not give up control of the company, which it enjoys through a class of supervoting shares. “If we had given up the multiple voting shares, I think you would not be here today,” he said to a reporter at the meeting. “You would not see Bombardier as it is.”

BOMBARDIER (BBD.B) CLOSE: $4, UP 7¢

CANADA - CHINA

The Globe and Mail. 4 May 2018. OPINION. Setting the record straight on the Aecon-CCCI deal. Deal has considerable benefits for Canadians, such as helping to create more high-quality jobs across the country
JOHN BECK, president and CEO of Aecon Group Inc.
LU JIANZHONG, president of CCCC International Holding Ltd. (CCCI)

While the federal government continues its review of the acquisition of Aecon Group Inc. by CCCC International Holding Ltd. (CCCI), the deal has been the subject of considerable media and political attention – including misleading and outright false claims.

As the principals in this transaction, we want to set the record straight.

The business case for the combination of our companies is beyond doubt, which is why the acquisition was unanimously approved by Aecon’s board, by Aebenefit shareholders (by 99.4 per cent of the votes cast), by Canada’s Competition Bureau and by Chinese regulators.

The deal will be of considerable benefit to Canada. It will lead to more high-quality jobs for Canadians in communities across the country, as Aecon will be in a much stronger position to compete with the many large foreign companies already operating in the country, but without a large on-the-ground presence.

This confidence is based not only on our assessment of the market and Aecon’s established strengths, but also on recent experience of Australia’s John Holland – which was acquired by CCCI in 2015 and is on track to double the size of its business within five years. John Holland continues to be led by an all-Australian leadership team, is hiring new Australian employees every month and increased its revenue by almost $1-billion last year, a rise of nearly 40 per cent. Its increased capacity and access to additional capital has helped it win several new infrastructure projects in Australia, including new rail tunnels under Sydney Harbour and construction of the country’s largest correctional facility. It has also opened a regional office for Southeast Asia and is part of a consortium that won the contract to build a new rapid transit line in Singapore.

John Holland’s experience follows a similar pattern to that of Houston-based Friede & Goldman (F&G), a world leader and innovator in offshore architecture and engineering serving the oil and gas industry, which joined CCCI in 2010. Since then, CCCI helped F&G to better leverage its existing competitive strengths and increase its revenue five-fold. Growth at John Holland and F&G came not from undercutting the market, but instead from combining CCCI’s global knowledge and financial capacity with local expertise to be a stronger partner for domestic firms, suppliers and clients.

Those are facts. They indicate the types of benefits that can accrue to Canada once the AeconCCCI deal is completed.

For reasons that have more to do with political opinion and the desire to limit competition, some opponents of the deal have made completely false claims about the nature of Aecon’s business and what may happen if it joins CCCI. Despite what they say, Aecon will continue to hire its work force in Canada and the business will continue to focus on the construction and maintecon nance of infrastructure – not the day-to-day operation of it. In the telecommunications sector, Aecon installs and pulls cable; it doesn’t build or operate telecom systems.

In the area of nuclear technology, Aecon holds no intellectual property, and the Candu reactors on which it works are already widely used in China with support from Canadian companies and the Canadian government. Furthermore, work on nuclear facilities is subject to security clearances at the individual employee level, regardless of the nationality of the contractor involved. Perhaps the wildest assumption of all is that Aecon’s employees would be complicit agents of a foreign government, which is a deep insult to the thousands of Canadian men and women who work on Aecon construction sites across Canada and the unions that represent them.

Opponents have also played fast and loose with the truth about CCCI’s ownership and left out important facts. For instance, although a state-owned enterprise, China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) is publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges and operates for the of all its shareholders, which include some of the world’s largest institutional investors, such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Blackrock and Vanguard. As one of the world’s largest construction companies, CCCC has more than 118,000 employees (including 48,000 foreign employees) in more than 140 countries and regions. The company does not need Chinese government subsidies for its international activities. In fact – as the success in Australia and the United States have shown – CCCI leverages its business sense with the knowledge and expertise of local experts to drive growth and provide all stakeholders with a strong return on investment.

Regardless of all the myths, if this deal is approved, Aecon will continue to be run as it always has – led in Canada by Canadians and in full compliance with Canadian laws and regulations and an unblemished ethical track record. The difference is the company will be in a stronger position to grow along with Canada’s infrastructure market, create more jobs and, with its unionized work force, build more of the infrastructure we need to keep Canada’s economy moving.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The Globe and Mail. 4 May 2018. OPINION. Canada’s IP strategy is inspired, but will it inspire innovators?
NATHANIEL LIPKUS, Partner, intellectual property, at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP

Canada’s IP strategy, as currently conceived, will not take our innovators to the IP tipping point.

Canada is known for many things – hockey, health care, Justin Bieber – but not for savvy when it comes to intellectual property. We have produced some of the world’s most promising innovations, yet we are a perennial laggard in filing for patents and capturing the value of new technologies through IP licensing and commercialization.

Why are we so bad at capturing IP in Canada? Because only in rare cases have Canadian business successes been driven by IP and, as a result, IP is not prioritized by Canadian business leaders. Real estate, financial services and natural-resources moguls who advise emerging businesses have rarely attributed their success to IP. Winners in the past decade’s software boom have abided by the misconception that software cannot be patented. Rare is the Canadian business guru who espouses the importance of IP.

Even Canada’s most notable homegrown IP successes have ultimately been failures. The rises of Nortel and RIM were swift, owing to cutting-edge IP. Their demises saw Nortel’s patents divvied up among global competitors, while RIM paid billions of dollars to patentees the world over as it watched the likes of Apple and Samsung swallow its market whole.

But recent and compelling forces – both in human spirit and public policy shift – are giving Canada another shot at becoming a global leader in fostering, funding and capitalizing on our IP prowess. Buoyed by expertise in such burgeoning fields as machine-learning, academic centres across the country have generated transformative research and spun off promising early-stage companies to capture the value of Canadian IP through ambitious commercialization. We finally have an edge. Yet we still haven’t figured out the IP part.

Tasked with a make-or-break innovation agenda, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) recently unveiled its strategy for intellectual property – $85.3-million will be dedicated to IP education and awareness initiatives, strategic IP tools for growth and changes to IP legislation targeted at protecting Canadian businesses and research institutions. ISED gets an A for creativity. And, coupled with its commitment to basic research and industry superclusters, it gets an A+ for ambition.

But what among these policy tools will cause innovators to change their behaviour?

Innovators respond to incentives. Day after day, they must triage, hoping that they are focusing on the things that truly matter. Until now, the Canadian government has never signalled that IP truly matters. It has offered tax credits for research and development expenses, but excluded patents from these incentives. It offered self-help IP tools and a door-open policy, but no financial incentives.

Innovators have picked up on the government’s historically tepid approach to IP and attitudes toward IP among Canadian innovators are generally more negative than south of the border. This divergence is dangerous for Canadian companies, who unwittingly find themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. patent holders. The policy tools introduced by the Canadian government will begin to change attitudes toward IP among Canadian innovators.

To be sure, the IP strategy creates a robust IP substructure for Canadian businesses motivated to use IP to their advantage. Industry superclusters will be enabled to create world-class IP pools and Canadian companies will, for the first time, strategically embed their IP in global technology standards. While going on offence, Canadian companies will also be protected against foreign IP trolls that use patents and trademarks for ransom. The IP strategy provides a much-needed reset – had it been in place during Nortel and RIM’s era, perhaps they would have thrived.

But none of this will change the way innovators behave. They will still wake up in the morning and fight the fires that kindled overnight. Patent collectives, IP marketplaces and standards organization, and basic IP literacy initiatives will not register on their radar. Canada’s IP strategy, as currently conceived, will not take our innovators to the IP tipping point.

To change behaviour, clear incentives to protect IP are needed. Innovators seek to get the most out of every investment dollar. Several tried and tested incentives – some modest, some more ambitious – have been presented to government to help promote protection of IP to researchers, small businesses and large enterprises alike. These include a commercialization coupon that would associate IP protection funding with research grants, a first-patent program to help small businesses file their first patent and a patent box to provide tax incentives for commercialization of Canadian IP.

The Canadian government was well aware of these incentives, as all of these options had been recommended to them by stakeholders and in reports of parliamentary committees. Yet they remain on the shelf in favour of a government-driven infrastructure intended to provide a foundation for Canadian competitiveness.

It may be that the IP strategy announced this week is just the beginning. That, as ISED puts meat on the bones of their skeletal policy announcements, more help will be provided to innovators. But for now, Canada’s innovator class will continue with business as usual – with IP on the back burner.

TOURISM

StatCan. 2018-05-04. Travel between Canada and other countries, February 2018

• Travel abroad: 4,846,672, February 2018, 2.1% increase (monthly change)
• Travel from abroad to Canada: 2,637,058, February 2018, 1.0% increase (monthly change)
• Source(s): CANSIM table 427-0005

US residents made 2.0 million trips to Canada in February, up 0.4% from January. Growth was led by an increase in trips by plane.

After accounting for normal seasonal variation, the number of overnight trips to Canada by plane taken by US residents rose 2.0% from January to 428,000 in February. Same-day car trips to Canada by US residents declined 0.6% to 658,000, while overnight car trips increased 1.3% to 673,000.

Canada saw 599,000 residents from overseas countries (countries other than the United States) in February, up 2.9% from January.

Canadian residents made 3.8 million trips to the United States in February, up 1.3% from January. Overnight trips by plane to the United States rose 1.0% from January to 733,000 in February. Canadian residents took 2.0 million same-day car trips (+2.6%) and 948,000 overnight car trips (-1.0%).

Just under 1.1 million Canadian residents returned from overseas countries in February, a 4.7% increase from January.

Table 427-0005 ^{4, 5, 6, 10}
Number of international travellers entering or returning to Canada, by province of entry, seasonally adjusted
monthly (persons)

• Tab 1:Data table
• Tab 2:Add/Remove data
• Tab 3:Manipulate
• Tab 4:Download
• Tab 5:Related information
• Tab 6:Help

Data table

The data below is a part of CANSIM table  427-0005.  Use the  Add/Remove data  tab to customize your table.

Selected items [Add/Remove data]

Geography = Canada

Traveller category	2017			2018
	October	November	December	January	February
footnotes
Total non resident travellers	2,616,496	2,675,940	2,602,668	2,611,192	2,637,058
Total Canadian travellers returning from abroad	4,704,756	4,679,888	4,660,304	4,749,028	4,846,672

Footnotes:

2.

Data for the Northwest Territories are reported with Manitoba and are not available separately.

3.

Effective March 22, 2018, separate numbers for Nunavut and Yukon are now presented for data back to January 2000.

4.

Seasonally adjusted data have been produced using X12 ARIMA seasonal adjustment program.

5.

Travel data for NEXUS Highway, which is a program designed to expedite the border clearance process for low-risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States, are now included. Monthly data has been revised back to January 2010 to reflect this change.

6.

In 2013, Statistics Canada updated the method used to estimate the number of same-day and overnight commercial plane trips made by United States residents entering Canada via one of the following three airports: Pearson (Toronto), Trudeau (Montréal) and Vancouver. This change created a break in the time series on the number of same-day and overnight commercial air trips made by American residents entering Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Please note that the methodological update does not affect the total number of United States residents travelling to Canada by commercial air. The 2013 and 2014 data on the number of same-day and overnight commercial air trips made by United States residents, however, have been revised.

7.

Effective March 22, 2018, this table now includes separate numbers for travellers entering by plane that are presented for data back to January 2000.

8.

Effective March 22, 2018, the series containing other modes of transport include; pedestrian, bus, train, boat, (commercial and private) and other vehicles, and are presented for data back to January 2000. Data for the series prior to January 2000 include air travel.

9.

Effective March 22, 2018, this table now includes data for Prince Edward Island that are presented for data back to January 2000.

10.

Figures may not add up to totals due to rounding.

Source:  Statistics Canada. Table  427-0005 -  Number of international travellers entering or returning to Canada, by province of entry, seasonally adjusted, monthly (persons), CANSIM (database). (accessed: ) 

FULL DOCUMENT: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/180504/dq180504a-eng.pdf

CANADA - PORTUGAL

PM Itinerary for Friday, May 4, 2018 Ottawa, Ontario - May 3, 2018

Note: All times local

Toronto, Ontario

10:45 a.m. The Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, will attend the Economic Club of Canada summit entitled “Canada-Portugal Economic Relations: Maximizing the Benefits of CETA.”

Ballroom

Marriott Eaton Downtown Centre Hotel

525 Bay Street

Notes for media:

Open coverage of remarks

Media are asked to arrive no later than 10 a.m. and to register in the Simcoe Room upon arrival

12:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will host an official lunch for the Prime Minister of Portugal and deliver remarks.

The Carlu

444 Yonge Street

Notes for media:

Open coverage of remarks

Media are asked to arrive no later than 12 p.m. and to register upon arrival

Cambridge, Ontario

3:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will make an announcement at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) North Plant with the Premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne. A media availability will follow.

Plastics Shop

TMMC North Plant

1055 Fountain Street North

Notes for media:

Pooled photo opportunity in the stitching shop at 3:30 p.m.

Open coverage of announcement and media availability at 3:45 p.m.

Media are asked to arrive no later than 2:15 p.m. and to register with Suzanne.Baal@toyota.com by 11 a.m. to ensure space on shuttle busses. Any networks wishing to send a satellite truck must also register.

Media are asked to follow signs on Fountain Street to gate 2, to park in the visitor’s parking lot, and proceed to the guard house (white building, blue roof at entrance). Media must check in with security.

Toronto, Ontario

6:45 p.m. The Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Portugal will attend a reception hosted by the Consulate General of Portugal in coordination with LiUNA Local 183.

Gerry Gallagher Hall

LiUNA Local 183

1263 Wilson Avenue, unit #200

Notes for media:

Open coverage of remarks

Media are asked to arrive no later than 6 p.m. and to register upon arrival

Canada-Portugal Statement on Enhanced Cooperation Ottawa, Ontario - May 3, 2018

On May 13, 1953, a group of Portuguese immigrants aboard the ocean liner Saturnia arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax, marking the beginning of a large-scale wave of immigration from Portugal to Canada. On the 65th anniversary of this event, Canada and Portugal affirm their shared histories and common values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Both countries also share a strong commitment to creating economic growth that works for everyone, building a safer and more peaceful world, defending the international rules-based order, and advancing sustainable development and prosperity, as well as the full and timely implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

As practical, tangible examples of enhanced engagement and collaboration between Canada and Portugal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister António Costa are pleased to highlight today three new and impending agreements:

• A new arrangement on youth mobility, signed today, will open further channels of exchange between Canadian and Portuguese young people
• A memorandum of understanding on aeronautical search and rescue operations will be finalized and signed in the coming months to build upon existing defence relations.
• A modernized agreement on social security will be finalized and signed at the earliest opportunity to continue to ensure income security protection and promote trade and investment.

The two prime ministers also commit to deepening collaboration in such areas as peace and security, trade, oceans, gender equality and human rights, and people-to-people ties.

Peace and Security

In their efforts to build a safer and more peaceful world, Canada and Portugal remain fully engaged in strengthening democracy and the respect for human rights, a common commitment to peacekeeping, including in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), promoting peace, stabilization and conflict prevention, the protection of women and children in armed conflict and the empowerment of women and girls in conflict-affected states, strengthening cooperation on global refugee issues, promoting safe, orderly and regular migration, combatting terrorism, and preventing and countering radicalization and violent extremism. Canada and Portugal are fully committed to integrating gender perspectives into all of these peace and security efforts.

Canada and Portugal emphasize the vital importance of the United Nations (UN) for maintaining a rules-based international order and serving as a key global forum for advancing international peace and security. Both countries reiterate their full support for the UN Secretary General’s efforts to increase the effectiveness of the organization and to achieve reform that enables it to better address today’s complex challenges in a comprehensive manner.

As founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a cornerstone of the wider transatlantic partnership, Canada and Portugal reaffirm their commitment to NATO in order to bolster international security and build a more peaceful and secure world.In addition to the planned memorandum of understanding on aeronautical search and rescue operations, both countries will explore enhanced defence cooperation, including on material collaboration.

Trade

Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Costa express their commitment to work together to realize the full potential of their bilateral trade and investment relationship. They welcome the provisional application of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU last September. This historic agreement offers many new opportunities for good, well-paying jobs, reinvigorated and diversified trade and investment in numerous areas. CETA will generate growth on both sides of the Atlantic through increased trade and investment, in particular for start-up companies and in the areas of information and communication technology , agriculture, cleantech and renewable energy, and aeronautical industries.

Oceans

As maritime countries that share the Atlantic Ocean as a fundamental and formative element of their identities, Canada and Portugal will continue to prioritize oceans-related cooperation, such as protecting our oceans for use today and for future generations. This will be done through further cooperation in forums such as the Canada-Portugal Committee on Fisheries Cooperation and under the framework of the 2013 Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation. Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Costa are pleased that cooperation in the promising field of ocean technologies has allowed Canadian and Portuguese academic institutions to access European and Canadian research and innovation funding.

Gender Equality and Human Rights

Both countries believe that gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and the realization of their human rights, are critical to building peace, reducing poverty, growing our economies, and achieving sustainability. The prime ministers note that one important avenue for achieving these objectives is through Canada and Portugal’s national action plans for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its supporting resolutions, which form the women, peace and security agenda. Canada and Portugal will continue to cooperate closely in international human rights forums to promote and protect the universal realization of human rights.

People-to-people ties

Canada and Portugal cherish the presence of a vast Luso Canadian community in Canada, which has a deep connection with the Portuguese Republic. United by the Atlantic and by the people that have crossed it through the centuries, both prime ministers recognize the valuable contributions of the Portuguese-Canadian community to building a prosperous and diverse Canada, and salute its significant role in the political, cultural, social, and economic fabric of Canada.

Prime Minister announces closer collaboration with Portugal

Ottawa, Ontario - May 3, 2018 - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today met with the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, to reaffirm the strong ties between Canada and Portugal, and to discuss the benefits of progressive trade and how the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is helping create good, middle class jobs and new opportunities for people on both sides of the Atlantic.

In a joint statement released after their meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Costa committed to further deepen the Canada-Portugal relationship through a new arrangement on youth mobility. This new collaboration, which provides greater opportunities for engagement and exchange, will help Canadian and Portuguese young people gain international experience – an increasingly important skill in today’s economy – as well as a better understanding of each other’s cultures, languages, and societies. Additionally, the two leaders announced that Canada and Portugal will sign a modernized agreement on social security, and a memorandum of understanding on aeronautical search and rescue operations.

Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Costa also underlined our countries’ common commitment to NATO and to peacekeeping, including the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. They discussed shared approaches to some of the most pressing global issues, and the importance of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, including on promoting gender equality, protecting the world’s oceans, addressing climate change, and building economies that work for everyone.

Quote

“Canada and Portugal know that free and open trade builds our economies, creates good, middle class jobs, and drives growth that works for everyone. Nearly half a million people of Portuguese descent call Canada home, and make invaluable contributions to our country every day. Promoting youth mobility between our countries will deepen these strong people-to-people bonds and help more young people gain international experience as they prepare for the jobs of the future.”

—The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Quick Facts

• This is the first formal meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Costa.
• Canada is home to a vibrant community of over 480,000 Canadians of Portuguese origin.
• Canada and Portugal enjoy a strong relationship, founded on common values, deep and significant people-to-people bonds, and mutually beneficial commercial relations. Two-way merchandise trade between Canada and Portugal totalled nearly $848 million in 2017, with Canadian exports valued at $270 million.
• On September 21, 2017, the provisional application of CETA took effect. CETA provides new opportunities for Canadian and Portuguese businesses, and will enhance trade and investment in both countries.
• CETA will provide Canadian businesses with greater access to the world's largest integrated market, with over 510 million consumers and a GDP of $22 trillion, and will help eliminate barriers in virtually all sectors and aspects of Canada-EU bilateral trade.
• Portugal ratified CETA at the national level on December 21, 2017.

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH

Global Affairs Canada. May 4, 2018. Minister Bibeau announces appointment of President and new members to Board of Governors of the International Development Research Centre

Ottawa, Ontario - Canada is committed to investing in knowledge and solutions that improve people’s lives in the developing world. Through the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada invests in knowledge, innovation, and solutions to improve lives and livelihoods and help drive large-scale positive change.

Today, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, announced the appointment of Jean Lebel as President of the Centre, along with six new members to IDRC’s Board of Governors.

Dr. Lebel joined IDRC in 1997 and took on increasingly important leadership roles within the centre. He has served as President in an interim capacity since 2013. Dr. Lebel has helped redefine the Centre’s long-term vision and strategic objectives, and instituted major operational changes that allowed IDRC to deliver on its mandate with greater efficiency, effectiveness and impact.

The following individuals are appointed Governors: Akwasi Aidoo, Alex Awiti (starting June 18, 2018), Shainoor Khoja, Purnima Mane, Gilles Rivard and Stephen Toope.

Today’s announcement underscores the Government of Canada’s commitment to an open, transparent and merit-based selection process for Governor-in-Council positions. It supports ministers in making recommendations that will result in the appointment of high-quality candidates who truly reflect Canada’s diversity in terms of linguistic, regional and employment equity representation. The process also supported IDRC’s Board unique expertise needs in international research and development.

Quotes

“The International Development Research Centre will be well served by the wealth of experience of Jean Lebel as IDRC President and its new Board of Governor members. The appointments maintain gender parity, and enhance the cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as and domestic and international development expertise of IDRC’s board.”

Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie

Quick facts

• The IDRC is a federal Crown corporation that reports to Parliament through the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, and is part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development efforts.
• The IDRC Board of Governors comprises a maximum of 14 members, who guide strategic direction, review results and approve budgets, annual reports and business plans, among other responsibilities.
• Working in collaboration with research institutions and funding partners at home and abroad, the IDRC helps build Southern research capacities to achieve cleaner environments, improved nutrition, higher incomes and greater health and gender equity in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

Backgrounder – Biographical notes

Canada’s humanitarian support in Somalia

Canada is providing an additional $18 million for humanitarian assistance to conflict- and drought-affected people in Somalia. The funding will provide vulnerable populations, including women and children, with life-saving assistance, including food assistance and nutrition services, water, sanitation and hygiene, and health care, including sexual and reproductive health services.

Here is a breakdown of the organizations receiving the funding:

• Action Against Hunger - $1.1 million
• CARE Canada - $1.6 million
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - $700,000
• International Committee of the Red Cross - $3 million
• Save the Children Canada - $1.9 million
• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - $500,000
• United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (country-based pooled funds) - $1 million
• UNICEF - $1.5 million
• World Food Programme - $4 million
• World Food Programme (United Nations Humanitarian Air Service) - $1 million
• World Vision Canada - $1.7 million

International Development Research Centre: https://www.idrc.ca/
Governor-in-Council appointments: https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-council/topics/appointments/governor-council.html

BUDGET 2018

Department of Finance Canada. May 3, 2018. Minister Morneau Discusses Canada's Plan for Equality and Growth With the Standing Committee on Finance

Ottawa, Ontario – Canada has a strong and growing economy, and the Government is making smart, necessary investments to ensure that the middle class and people working hard to join it continue to benefit from that growth.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau today appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance to discuss Bill C-74, the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1, which would enact key measures announced in Budget 2018. This legislation is the next step in the Government's plan to strengthen and grow the middle class, give real help to people working hard to join the middle class, and ensure that every Canadian has an equal and fair chance at success.

Earlier this week, Minister Morneau appeared at the Standing Committee on the Status of Women to discuss the new investments in Budget 2018 aimed at promoting gender equality and creating more opportunities for Canada's women and girls. He outlined the challenges and barriers that hold too many women back, and described the Government's plan to encourage greater participation of women in the workforce, including the new Employment Insurance Parental Sharing Benefit that would provide additional weeks of parental benefits when parents agree to share parental leave.

Budget 2018 also makes further progress toward greater equality and stronger growth by:

• Putting more money in the pockets of those who need it the most, with a strengthened Canada Child Benefit and the introduction of the new Canada Workers Benefit.
• Making significant progress towards equality of opportunity, by taking leadership to address the gender wage gap, supporting equal parenting, tackling gender-based violence and sexual harassment, and introducing a new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.
• Supporting the next generation of researchers, by providing historic funding to increase opportunities for young researchers and provide them the equipment they need, while also strengthening support for entrepreneurs to innovate, scale up, and reach global markets.
• Advancing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, by helping to close the gap between the quality of life of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, providing greater support to keep First Nations children safe and supported within their communities, accelerating progress on clean drinking water, housing, and employment, and supporting recognition of rights and self-determination.
• Protecting the environment for future generations, by making historic investments to preserve our natural heritage, ensuring a price is put on carbon pollution across Canada, and extending support for clean energy projects.
• Upholding Canada's shared values and supporting the health and wellness of Canadians, by partnering with provinces and territories to address the opioid crisis, taking action to advance national pharmacare, and bolstering support for Canada's official languages.

Quote

"Budget 2018 reflects the confident and ambitious approach Canadians expect from our government. It makes needed and sound investments to keep Canada's middle class and economy strong and growing. From lowering the small business tax rate to strengthening the Canada Pension Plan to introducing the new Canada Workers Benefit, the Government is making targeted investments that will help Canadians get ahead and succeed in the economy of the future. It's a budget that puts people first, that builds on the hard work of Canadians, and that will help secure a more prosperous future for everyone."

- Bill Morneau, Minister of Finance

Quick Facts

• Since November 2015, the Canadian economy has created over 600,000 jobs, most of them full-time.
• Canada's unemployment rate is near its lowest level over the past 40 years.
• Since 2016, Canada has led the G7 in economic growth.
• The Government is making steady improvements to its finances:

• The federal debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio remains firmly on a downward track and the deficit-to-GDP ratio is projected to reach 0.5 per cent in 2022–23.

• Canada's total government net debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest among G7 countries.

FULL DOCUMENT: https://www.fin.gc.ca/n18/18-032-eng.asp

________________

LGCJ.: