ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON TO THE IRELAND-CANADA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ROBINSON TO THE IRELAND-CANADA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE EUROPEAN CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to address so many distinguished guests representing the diversity of Canadian business interests in Europe.
Chambers of Commerce throughout Ireland provides a valuable linkage between local businesses and their surrounding communities. They represent a very high level of voluntary commitment and sense of service, and in addition have become a valuable framework for links of friendship with business people in Northern Ireland. I have witnessed this development in my travels around the country as President, and I have noted the establishment of international networking between Chambers of Commerce. It is therefore a particular pleasure to address the Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce in Association with the European Chambers here in Montreal.
As we all recognise, the major emerging reality in the world economy is the globalisation of markets. We are witnessing greatly increased mobility of goods and capital. Trade is becoming more complex. For example, trade within industries, and particularly within transnational corporations, is playing a larger role. In this shifting environment, governments are making greater efforts to identify where their interests lie within the overall system and how they should try to influence the shape of the system.
In Ireland we have long recognised that there is no alternative to building an economy open to investment and trade. Our economy is one of the most open in the world, if the volume of trade is compared to Gross National Product. We export 70% of what we produce. Therefore we have a keen interest in an orderly international trading system. We were strongly committed, as was the Canadian Government, to a successful outcome to the Uruguay Round to trade negotiations.
The Agreement reached on the 15th of December last, after seven years of difficult negotiations was described by the Director General of GATT, an Irishman, Peter Sutherland, as a "defining moment in modern history".
International trade is also central to sustaining Canada's prosperity. Canada played a significant role, as a member of the Quadrilateral group which also included the European Union, the United States and Japan and as a member of the Cairns Group, in advancing the negotiations at crucial stages.
Looking to the future, the World Trade Organisation, established under the Agreement, will be a springboard for further action. It will begin to consider a number of new issues such as trade and the environment, the relationship between trade law and international trade, trade and internationally recognised labour standards and calls for further international rules on investment. The outcome of these discussions will have a considerable bearing on future EU Canada economic relations.
What Governments have done in the Uruguay Round is to establish a framework of opportunity - for trade in goods, in services, in government procurement, and so on. It is for business to do the rest - to compete in markets, to attract investment, to enter strategic alliances with enterprises abroad. This is where organisations such as yours, which bring together those actively involved in business, can play such an important role.
Ireland has been a member of the European Community for over twenty years now and those years have led to radical transformations in the Community and to considerable changes in Ireland too. When our first attempt to join the European Community faltered in 1961 we unilaterally reduced our tariffs with the then six member States. In 1965 we concluded the Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement. On joining the European Economic Community in 1973 we embarked on transitional tariff reductions which were completed in 1978. The benefits were impressive. In the period between 1960 and 1990 the volume of our exports grew ten times. Our historic dependence on the market of our nearest neighbour, Britain, progressively weakened. Our trade diversified. Between 1970 and 1990, Britain's share of Irish exports has gone down from 63% to 34%, while that of the other ten Community members went from 11% to 41%, in a substantially increased total volume of trade.
Through all of this we also came to understand that economic development is a complex undertaking, involving restructuring, establishment of investment priorities, ensuring environmental protection, providing for infrastructural development, export promotion and regional development, re-examining and upgrading our system of education as well as adapting and refining our training and retraining programmes. All of this highlighted the importance of partnership in the search for progress - partnership between the public and private sectors, between employers and trade unions - as well as programmes that responded to specific national needs and which at the same time took account of international market trends.
The history, culture, political and economic values which Europe and Canada share provide an ideal foundation for the development of a strong economic relationship. Our shared commitment to free and open trade and the fuller development of a rules bound international trading system make us natural allies in international discussions on these issues.
I am glad to note that Europe remains Canada's most important economic partner after the United States. It is also Canada's second largest source and destination of foreign direct investment.
We for our part greatly value the extent of Canadian investment in Ireland. There are some 30 Canadian companies in Ireland in the financial services, software, mining, electronics and healthcare sectors. These companies have taken into account our incentives, our well qualified workforce and our overall business environment. An important factor influencing Canadian investors is the long term track record of success which Canadian companies have experienced in Ireland. A not unimportant consideration is what I might refer to as cultural compatibility, which makes living and doing business in Ireland less stressful and less difficult than in other non-Canadian investment locations.
The trend of foreign investment in Ireland will, I believe, gain strength for a number of reasons. The main reason is the strength of the Irish economy. We currently have the fastest growth rate in the European Union with an inflation rate of little more than half the Union's average.
We will experience growth of 5% to 6% this year, compared to a European Union average of 1.6%. Ireland's premier independent economic forecasting body, the Economic and Social Research Institute, forecasts an average growth of around 5% a year for the rest of the decade, against a background of continued low inflation.
Economic growth is now expected right across Europe and the implementation of the European Union's Single Market should spur transatlantic trade and investment. The further enlargement of the European Union on 1 January next, and the progressive alignment of Central and Eastern European economies with the European Union economy, will create new opportunities on the European continent.
Investment and trade are closely related. Recent statistics show that trade between Canada and the European Union is growing at a steady rate. For Ireland, Canada is an important trading partner with trade between our two countries worth almost $600 million last year, representing a 21% increase over the previous year and continuing the positive trend set in recent years. Given the difficult economic conditions in recent times and the fact that world trade grew very slowly in 1993, this performance is most encouraging.
As Canada and Europe look to a period of transition and challenge on the world scene, what unites us is ultimately more than economic logic. Our shared values regarding democracy and human rights, and the ties of family and friendship between us - ties with which we in Ireland are especially familiar - should provide a firm basis for partnership, as we address the challenge and opportunities of the future.
The formation of the Ireland-Canada Chamber of Commerce reflects the fact that, in Canada generally and in Montreal specifically, there are many key people in industry and commerce who are either of Irish descent, have Irish connections or do business with Ireland. The Chamber provides a forum for bringing this Irish dimension together and focusing the contribution which members can make towards extending and expanding trade relationships to the benefit of both Irish and Canadian business. I suggest that there is considerable scope for Canadian and Irish companies to form business partnerships and marketing alliances though joint ventures, technology transfers and other commercial arrangements aimed at new business in the European Single Market.