Harper in Panama to sign Free-Trade Deal

Harper in Panama to Sign Free-Trade Deal

Panama City — Story by Globe and Mail


Prime Minister Stephen Harper has detoured from his trip home following the Three Amigos summit in Mexico to sign a free-trade agreement Tuesday in Panama, the fastest growing economy in Central America.

Coinciding with the deal, Panama is lifting a six-year-old ban on Canadian beef, one imposed after mad cow disease hit Canada in 2003.

The Canada-Panama free-trade deal is the fifth such agreement to liberalize commerce with other countries that the Conservative government has inked since taking power more than three years ago.

Canada and many other nations are scrambling to sign preferential business arrangements with each other in the wake of the collapse of world trade talks that had failed to reach a global-scale deal.

Ottawa is also trying to diversify trade beyond its single biggest trading partner, the United States because the worldwide recession has hit Americans particularly hard. It's not the first time Canada has tried to shift trade activity away from the U.S. but all previous efforts have failed to move significant amounts of commercial activity abroad.

Mr. Harper's host in Panama City today is newly-minted Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, a supermarket chain tycoon-turned populist politician who won power only three months ago.

The Canadian leader is also visiting the Panama Canal, a marvel of engineering effort that's undergoing a significant expansion. The canal, which the United States constructed in the early 20th century, is being widened so it can accept giant supertanker ships.

The canal connects the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic