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COMPAS Poll/Survey
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The COMPAS panel of CEOs and business leaders was consulted about trade issues in the wake of publication of a major Conference Board of Canada study on Canada’s role in international trade. Entitled Stuck in Neutral: Canada’s Engagement in Regional and Global Supply Chains, the report argues that Canadian firms have missed major opportunities to contribute to U.S. and Asian supply chains in recent years.
Panelists concur heartily with the Conference Board study’s portrait of our country’s declining role in supply chains while they see the decline of manufacturing as a more serious problem than the Conference Board study appears to. The CEOs and business leaders on the panel agree with most but not all of the specific positions articulated in the Conference Board report. They see lack of business initiative and poor Canadian tax policy as keys to Canadian weakness in international supply chains. They also see regulatory and other non-tariff barriers to trade as a source of difficulty. Post-9/11 border problems may be a factor in the decline of our manufactured exports, but less of a factor than other considerations. The principal difference between the apparent perspective of the Conference Board report and the position of panelists is the latter’s staunch view of the intrinsic value and importance of manufacturing for Canada. By an immense margin, panelists are convinced that “relative to commodities, manufacturing has greater intrinsic value for Canada because of the R&D and other desirable functions that often go hand in hand with manufacturing.” By contrast, the Conference Board report implies that the decline of Canadian manufacturing may not be a major dilemma for Canada insofar as the commodities that we export are rising in price while manufactured goods are falling in prices. These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP. |
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