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DE RUEHOT #0415/01 0482108
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 172108Z FEB 06 ZFF4
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000415 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CAN AND EAP/EP; PASS USTR FOR CUTLER, CHANDLER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD APECO CA
SUBJECT: CANADIAN VIEWS ON APEC 2006 
 
REF: A. STATE 14967 
     ¶B. WELLINGTON 102 
 
OTTAWA 00000415  001.3 OF 002 
 
 
 ¶1.  SUMMARY: Canadian priorities for APEC in 2006 share 
broad common ground with U.S. objectives described in ref.A. 
The GOC is focusing on health security, private-sector-led 
development, and continuing to use APEC leaders' statements 
to influence WTO negotiations. End Summary. End Summary. 
 
 
¶2. (SBU)  EconMinCouns met with Director General for Economic 
Policy Drew Fagan and APEC Deputy Director Chris Burton of 
DFAIT to discuss Canadian objectives for APEC in 2006.  They 
observed that there is a "lot of commonality" between U.S. 
and Canadian ur objectives.  On the security side, Canada's 
priority is to work on implementation of last year's proposal 
for improving rail and mass transit security in conjunction 
with the U.S.  Canada was pleased with the leaders' pledge to 
respect human rights rules in counterterrorism operations, 
and wants to move forward on this issue, e.g. through 
capacity-building exercies with APEC member states. 
 
Health Security 
--------------- 
3.. (SBU) DFAIT officials said that they look forward to 
coniuing to work closely with the U.S. as they take over the 
chair of the health security working group, and described the 
leaders' initaitve on health as "useful."  They hope the 
group will make progress on three areas: 
--risk communication - how and when to inform other 
goverments and the public of health risks; 
--border measures; 
--HIV/AIDS.  The Canadians commented that APEC leaders have 
not made any high-level commitments as a group on the 
HIV/AIDS issue; they would like to use APEC to build 
commitment and create a forum for working discussions, e.g. 
on the economic effects of AIDS. 
Border contingency planning is another area of concern, but 
Canadian officials suggested that the U.S. and Canada needed 
to get further along in bilateral work on these issues in the 
Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) framework before 
trying to broaden its scope APEC-wide. 
 
Private Sector-Led Development 
------------------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) Canada's joint initiative with New Zealand on 
private-sector-led development (ref.B) is a major priority. 
APEC is an opportunity to help regional governments 
understand that the private sector is the fundamental engine 
of development, and that creating an enabling environment (by 
addressing "behind-the-border" issues)  is a key prerequisite 
for success.  The Canadian approach will be to use business 
people to underscore this point and share their experiences; 
they are looking for APEC endorsement for the proposed 
Montreal meeting in May. 
 
Trade Policy 
------------ 
¶5. (SBU) Canada sees the role of APEC in WTO negotiations, 
via targeted leaders' statements, as highly constructive. 
APEC work on trade facilitation is also helpful in the WTO 
context. 
 
But not a Free Trade Area 
------------------------- 
¶6.  (SBU) Canada, however, shares U.S. reservations about a 
formal APEC-wide FTA, and will not be pushing the idea. 
Canadian officials noted that the proposal for a formal trade 
area originated with the Canadian chair of ABAC, Pierre 
Lorty,a former Bombardier CEO for whom trade facilitation is 
much less of an issue than straightforwad market access, and 
agreed that ABAC should do a feasibility study. 
 
Or Model FTA Language 
--------------------- 
¶7.  (SBU) Canadian officials also expressed reservations 
about the utility of developing "model" FTA language and are 
not intending to make any proposals in this area.  They are 
concerned that any model FTA language endorsed by all of APEC 
Qconcerned that any model FTA language endorsed by all of APEC 
would function as a ceiling rather than a floor in individual 
negotiations, and that the bar would be set too low, 
hampering efforts to get more robust FTAs. (Canada is 
currently in talks with Japan and Korea on potential FTAs.) 
Transparency, however, remains a promising area in which 
model language might help raise standards. 
 
Leaders' Meeting Planning 
------------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) Canadian officials met with Vietnamese senior 
officials on their way to Washington in January, and 
 
OTTAWA 00000415  002.3 OF 002 
 
 
generally received the impression that the Vietnamese are 
doing the right things to prepare for the leaders' meeting in 
Vietnam.  Canada has offered to help Vietnamese officials 
with training needs, but the Vietnamese have not yet gotten 
back to them with requests.  Canada anticipates that China 
will continue to try to push from time to time to renegotiate 
terms of Taiwan's participation in APEC. Canadian officials 
also said that they had made it clear to the Vietnamese that 
security needs to remain on the agenda. 
 
Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
WILKINS