Re: {OT} The New Yanker Times going down....

"Sharx35" <sharx35@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:LaiMk.3599$%%2.1710@xxxxxxxxxxx


"Scott in Florida" <MoveOn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:05c2g4pt1gmr3boprubpp947l6thjhncsp@xxxxxxxxxx
It could not happen to a bigger piece of ***...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081023232610.187uwdxs&show_article=1


--

Scott in Florida

The NYT has degenerated into a shill for second-rate LIEbrawlism.



Biased article from the NYT:

October 17, 2008
Canada and Europe Ponder Trade Pact
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA - Since the first free trade agreement between the United States and
Canada, 20 years ago this month, Canada's economy has become increasingly
integrated with that of the United States. On Friday, with the American
economy in disarray and its global leadership in question, Canada will take
what appears to be a step back from that relationship.

Following a meeting in Quebec City, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper,
and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who is the president of the
European Union as well, are expected to sign an agreement for preliminary
negotiations meant to create a trade pact between Canada and Europe that
would be even more sweeping than the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A person who is familiar with the government's plan, but who did not want to
be identified as upstaging an announcement by two heads of state, said the
agreement would begin "a scoping exercise leading to the launch of talks."

It follows the release Thursday of a 192-page study by the Canadian and
European governments that concludes such a deal could increase exports from
Canada to Europe by 20.6 percent by 2014.

Thomas P. d'Aquino, the chief executive and president of the Canadian
Council of Chief Executives, a lobbying group, said in an interview that a
deal for Canada and Europe could, in the long run, also involve the United
States.

"One of the arguments I'll be sensitive to from Americans is, 'Now that we're
in trouble, you're turning your back on us,' " Mr. d'Aquino said from
Chicago, where he is speaking on trade issues. "But this is not about us
saying that we're tired of having our eggs in one basket. It would be an
excellent step to doing something more ambitious on trans-Atlantic trade."

Although proximity has made the United States Canada's top trading partner,
there have been many attempts to reduce the country's economic dependence on
its neighbor to the south.

When Pierre Elliot Trudeau was prime minister he championed what he called a
"third option" which emphasized increasing trade with Europe and Asia.

Political resistance in both Canada and Europe, as well as business
disinterest, stymied such efforts.

Trade with the United States made up about 37 percent of Canada's gross
domestic product in 1990 and rose above 65 percent 10 years later. (It has
generally been just under that peak for most of this decade.)

The preliminary trade deal suggested by the study, which was released by the
European Union but not by Canada, exceeds Nafta in some respects. If adopted
it would minimize barriers in services, include sales to government, open up
the air travel market and allow skilled Canadians and Europeans to work
across borders without visas.

Mr. d'Aquino said that Canada's experience with the first trade agreement
and Nafta meant that most Canadian governments and businesses would welcome
a European pact. Any deal would also require provincial approval on many
issues.

Jean Charest, the premier of Quebec, has been among the most prominent
proponents for a deal. Europe's enthusiasm, it seems, is largely a product
of Mr. Sarkozy, who has a long relationship with the Montreal financier Paul
G. Desmarais Sr. Through the Power Corporation of Canada, Mr. Desmarais and
his family control investments in several prominent European companies,
including the French oil and gas company Total and GDF Suez, a major gas and
water utility operator.

The preliminary work leading up to Friday's announcement has passed
relatively unnoticed in Canada.

But the 1988 trade deal and, to a lesser extent Nafta, were polarizing
issues. Maude Barlow, the chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, a group
that was formed in part to protest the first trade talks with the United
States, acknowledged that there might be less public debate over a deal with
Europe.

"It doesn't involve one big, dominating superpower," she said. "Europe seems
far away, it seems benign."

Ms. Barlow is concerned that a sweeping deal would open up the privatization
of traditionally public services in Canada, such as water utilities.

But she and her supporters may not have much to worry about, at least in the
view of Michael Hart, a professor of trade policy at Carleton University in
Ottawa and a former senior trade official.

Mr. Hart is skeptical Mr. Sarkozy will win over Europe's trade bureaucrats,
and he said that Canadian companies that want to do business in Europe would
generally continue to invest there rather than export merchandise from
Canada.

"There are things we can do with Europe," he said. "But there's not a basis
for a full-fledged agreement."


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