Taken from Vapaa Sana Press Limited The Canada European Union Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Netherlands Business and Professional Organization arranged a luncheon last week titled Economic Outlook 2007. With the Governer of the Bank of Canada, Mr David Dodge, as the guest speaker the event attracted wide media attention and also gave publicity to the views of the Europe-oriented organizers. In his remarks Governor David Dodge reiterated the Bank of Canada’s outlook for growth in the global and Canadian economies in 2007 and 2008. The Bank projects that the Canadian economy will continue to operate close to its production capacity through to the end of 2008, he said. The risks to the Bank’s outlook are roughly balanced, Governor Dodge noted, but have diminished somewhat in recent months. However, he did point out that the possibility of a disorderly resolution of global imbalances remains. The presence of these global imbalances demonstrates the need for a more effective International Monetary Fund, Governor Dodge said. “The danger posed by global imbalances shows that we still need an international institution charged with supporting the smooth functioning of the global economy.” The Governor stressed that the key to a more effective IMF is to improve the way it conducts surveillance. “As the world’s economies become increasingly globalized, I would argue that now, more than ever, a strengthened IMF is in every country’s interest,” Governor Dodge said.

President of The European Union Canada Chamber of Commerce (EUCOCIT) Christian Frayssignes expressed his appreciation of the call by Mr Dodge for surveillance and management of the global economy imbalances by the IMF. “We can see from his comments on the US slow down (housing and automobile) how critical, with more than 80% of our exports, the United States are to Canadian international trade and investment”, he said. Mr Frayssignes said that the role of the EUCOCIT to promote more Canadian EU exchanges and trade, by offering more visibility to its 18 member countries and 4 associate members should be perceived as an encouragement to broaden the increasingly narrow focus of our international trade. – Any business man knows that the easiest way to get more business is from existing customer, he also knows of the risks, vulnerability and influence coming from relying on a main and large single customer. As Canada starts to broaden its horizons towards the future Asian giants China and India, we believe that we also should expand our trade with the “old European Continent”. Not only for sentimental and cultural reasons, as if many of us came here over several generations to build Canada, with our culture, investments, expertise, … we also keep close links and contacts with our countries of origin, have access to huge trade networks through our organizations and could facilitate access to many areas where EU countries have leading expertise and are “ahead of the game” (environment? sustainability? cleaner energy? engineering? to take a few examples). In 2005, Canada exported $24.7 B to Europe and imported $45.6 B, respectively 5.5% and 11.8% of its world trade. When you look at the respective populations of Europe: more than 500 million for the 27 EU members vs. less than 300 million in the USA we know that we can do better. Mr Frayssignes said. – Cananda Finland Chamber of Commerce is one of the members of EUCOCIT.