This study provides important empirical background to the continuing debate on Canadian industrial policy and trade. The analysis is based on primary data derived from a unique survey of individual firms, both Canadian and foreign-owned, conducted early in the 1981-1982 recession. The main purpose of the study is to assess whether recent changes in tariffs, exchange rates, wage rates, and other factors in Canada and the world economy suggest the need for any significant modification in the earlier analyses and conclusions. The study presents prior evidence on costs, specialization, and trade; assesses current costs and productivity, and presents new information on how increased exports and specialization would affect cost performance and international competitiveness; examines non-production costs and other non-cost influences on specialization and export performance; and suggests strategies for the private sector to consider in order to survive in the changing trade environment of the 1980s.

This book examines policy-making in one of the most significant areasof activity in the Canadian economy -- natural resources and theenvironment. It discusses the evolution of resource policies from theearly era of exploitation to the present era of resource andenvironmental management. Using an integrated political economy andpolicy perspective, the book provides an analytic framework from whichthe foundation of ideological perspectives, administrative structures,and substantive issues are explored. The integration of social scienceperspectives and the combination of theoretical and empirical work makethis innovative book one of the most comprehensive analyses of Canadiannatural resource and environmental policy to date.

This study is the first major attempt to estimate what would happen in Canada if all trade restrictions between that country and the United States were removed. Refuting a number of generally held assumptions, the authors' findings indicate that Canadian industries would benefit substantially, provided that they seized the opportunities to reorganize for the large North American market. The authors then explore resulting general equilibrium pressures on wages and exchange and continue with an analysis of the historical effects of protection on Canada.

Japan is Canada's most important overseas trading partner, yetthe backgound of this relationship is comparatively unknown to mostCanadians. In order to bridge this gap, the author surveys Canadianforeign policy aims towards Japan since WWII with emphasis on thedevelopment of economic ties. He illustrates the role of majordepartments, ministries, diplomats, businessmen, and other leadingparticipants and the processess by which these aims succeeded orfailed. This objective analysis will prove a valuable reference source forstudents, officials, bureaucrats, historians, businessmen and women,journalists, and all those interested not only in economic relationsbetween Canada and Japan but also in the way foreign policy isformulated in Canada.

Canada has always been a trading nation. From the early days of fur and fish to the present, when a remarkable 90 percent of the gross national product is attributable to exports and imports, Canadians have relied on international trade to bolster their economy. A Trading Nation, a brilliantly crafted overview and analysis of the historical foundations of modern Canadian trade policy, is the first survey to address the history of Canadian commercial policy in over 50 years. Michael Hart skillfully guides readers through more than three centuries of Canadian trade history. His engaging narrative explains how Canadians have largely come to accept that a country that derives much of its wealth from international commerce has much to gain from an open, well-ordered international economy. Close attention to trade and related economic policy choices, he argues, is crucial if Canada intends to adapt to the challenges of the new globalized economy.

In the 1980s many developed countries were increasingly tempted to improve their national competitiveness by adopting protectionist policies. This book demonstrates that such policies would be mistaken and do serious damage to industries in the countries concerned. This book, based on extensive original research provides important empirical evidence concerning the proportion of all trade which is intra-industry trade; concerning the key role of multinationals in the growth of intra-industry trade and concerning the contrasting response – particularly between those companies which are multinational parents and those which are multinational subsidiaries – to the changing competitive conditions.