Completing Europe's Internal Market: Implications for Canadian Policy

The 1992 project in Europe promises to be one of the most significant developments of the contemporary international political economy, and Canadians need to be ready to meet the challenges and opportunities it presents. The focus of the present paper is to consider these challenges and Canada's response from the perspective of government trade policy. While obviously industry will need to consider the specific effects of the 1992 project, it is for the government to set the broad goals for the Canadian economy in light of a changed international environment. This paper's object is to examine, first of all, the recent patterns of the trading relations between Canada and the EC, and the current trade policy of the Canadian government, and thus the expectations Canada has for the future of this trading relationship. Having considered the context of the trading relationship, the project to complete the internal market by 1992 will be examined. The paper will then consider the expectations and the likely results of the programme, and how these results will influence Canada's position. Finally, a set of conclusions will be drawn from this analysis for the conduct of Canadian trade in the face of 1992.