Not for Export
Not for Export

Author: Glen Williams

Publisher:

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9780771088469

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First published in 1983 and widely recognized as a definitive work in Canadian political economy, Not for Export examines the history of Canadian industrial development, from John A. Macdonald's National Policy of 1879 to Brian Mulroney's regional free trade agreements of recent years.Despite a high standard of living and a high level of technological know-how, Canada has exhibited a suprisingly low level of industrial development. Resource-based exports, dependence on foreign investment, and branch-plant manufacturing for the Canadian market have all been contributing factors toCanada's poor industrial performance. In fact, by any of various standards, such as manufactured exports and research and development, Canada is at or near the bottom in industrial performance relative to other industrialized nations. The failure over the years, Williams concludes, has been one ofmissed opportunities and short-term political solutions. This completely revised and updated edition of Not for Export looks at present Canadian industrial performance and future potential for an improved economy through the trifocal lens of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, the North AmericanFree Trade Agreement, and the significantly expanded GATT agreement of December, 1993. While the future of Canadian industry is not as bleak as raw comparative data might suggest, political will and renewed business determination will be required for Canada to become a leading actor in the emergingglobal economy. The alternative - as a high-wage, low productivity economy - is for Canada to remain a regional satellite to the overwhelming United States economy, which itself is under increasing global economic pressure from the European Community and countries of the Far East.

The State and Enterprise
The State and Enterprise

Author: Tom Traves

Publisher:

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13:

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This series, begun in 1978, will serve, it is hoped, as a vehicle for the publication of original studies in the general area of Canadian political economy and economic history, with particular emphasis on the part played by the government in shaping the economy. Collections of shorter studies, as well as theoretical or internationally comparative works, may also be included. Based on case studies of businessmen's organizations, federal regulartory agencies, and several of the industries they regulated, this book seeks to explain the emergence of the modern interventionist state as the product of competing claims on the state by manufacturers, industrial workers, and farmers, each responding to the structural imperatives of the Canadian economy. The survey details two distinct phases in federal industrial thinking between 1917 and 1931. The first phase covers the period of war and reconstruction to 1921, when the federal government first imposed and then withdrew from active regulation of the economy. During the phase, from 1921 to 1931, industrialists attempted to control competition and minimize class conflict without government regulation, and looked to the state only to provide passive intervention in the form of the protective tariff. In the first section, demands for regulation by businessmen are examined in a study of the Canadian Reconstruction Association, a businessmen's organization, and the course of the regulatory experiences is charted in case studies of the Paper Controller nd the newsprint industry and the Board of Commerce and the sugar refining industry. In the second section, the search for security without regulations is examined in a discussion of the merger movement, industrial relations policies, and demands for tariff reforms. The analysis is based on two detailed studies of political conflicts over claims presented to the Advisory Board on Tariff and Taxation for revisions to the tariff in the automobile and steel industries.