All the World's a Market 



by Hon. Mitchell Sharp 



Minister of Trade and Commerce for Canada 

 Ottawa, Canada 



It is always a pleasure to visit Washington and especially 

 at this time of year. You have shown great wisdom in the 

 venue and timing for your conference. 



I particularly welcome this opportunity to meet our North 

 American neighbors and to review with them our important 

 and joint interests in the development of the fisheries resources 

 of this continent. While I am not a fisherman, nor like my 

 colleague, Mr. Robichaud, an expert on fisheries, as the Cana- 

 dian minister responsible for trade I have a major interest in 

 the markets for fish both here and throughout the world. 



This is the first time that I have participated in a tripartite 

 meeting of this kind. The very fact that the fishing interests 

 of Mexico, the United States and Canada have chosen to meet 

 here in Washington is, in my view, a reflection of the growing 

 consciousness of our ever-increasing interdependence. I have 

 no doubt that you will have many difficult and complex prob- 

 lems to review over these two days. Neither have I any doubt 

 that through full and frank discussions you will see a good 

 deal more clearly where the best interests of the North Ameri- 

 can fishing industries lie and the best way to pursue and 

 develop those interests. 



I have been billed to speak on the subject, "All the World's 

 a Market." Certainly, all the world is a market for fish. I 

 understand that during 1964 over 15 million tons of fish moved 

 in or out of 140 countries. Your industry is obviously achiev- 

 ing in its own substantial way the goals that enlightened men 

 nations are working for throughout the world — the expansion 

 of trade to improve the economic welfare of mankind. 



It has been estimated that the world's population is increas- 

 ing by 100,000 persons every day. We have been warned 

 that by 1975 world requirements for animal protein will have 

 increased by 50 percent. If that demand were to be satisfied 

 entirely by fish, it would amount to an increase of 55 billion 

 pounds per year in the present world annual fishing catch. 

 This magnitude has, I am sure, special significance to my 

 colleague. 



Will the fishing industry rise to the challenge? New meth- 

 ods of maintaining and improving yields will be necessary. 

 The pace of research must be accelerated. It is sobering to 

 remind ourselves that we are eating much the same kinds and 

 forms of fish that our ancestors ate 300 years ago and that 



numerous species are still not commercially exploited. Ob- 

 viously, the sea still has much to offer. 



Nor have we yet created the kind of international trading 

 conditions that will provide maximum encouragement to the 

 consumption and efficient production of fish. We are, I be- 

 lieve, moving in the right direction but there is still a long way 

 to go. 



I turn then to some trade matters of particular concern to 

 Canada. Canadians of course have a tremendous stake in 

 exports. One of every 5 dollars earned by Canadians is de- 

 rived from exporting. With such a stake in export trade we 

 have pursued consistently policies designed to obtain better 

 access abroad for our products. Trade with the United 

 States — the world's largest and richest market — is of key im- 

 portance to us. I am happy to say that this trade is thriving. 

 Our sales to the United States in 1964 exceeded $4 billion. 

 They have been rising almost as fast as U.S. sales to Canada. 

 Last year, 53% of Canada's exports went to the United States; 

 71% of our imports came from the United States. I put 

 these few facts on the record so that my American audience 

 will understand why we Canadians react so forcibly, and I have 

 no doubt that Mexicans do as well, to measures to restrict trade. 

 Our economic well being is too vitally dependent on interna- 

 tional trade for us to do anything else when our trade and 

 economic interests are threatened. 



There are two features of Canada's trade and economic 

 situation to which I would like to draw particular attention. 



The first relates to Canada's external payments position. 

 In the past decade Canada has incurred unusually large defi- 

 cits in our international exchange of goods and services. Good 

 progress has been made in recent years in lessening this imbal- 

 ance with the world at large. Canada's deficit on current 

 international transactions has been reduced from a high of 

 $1.5 billion in 1959 to just under $/ 2 billion in 1964. 



However, Canada's current deficit with the United States 

 has exceeded $1 billion each year for the past decade and last 

 year rose to a new high of nearly $l^ / 3 billion. In terms of 

 our respective national products, for the United States this 

 would be comparable to a deficit of $24 billion. This deficit 

 of $12/3 billion with the United States was covered by a surplus 

 with the overseas area amounting to $1.2 billion in 1964, and 



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