Question :

How effectively do Canadian businesses and government engage together to promote a shared vision and agenda in the global business environment? Do Canadians strike an effective balance between private sector pursuit of global business and public sector support and enablement?

Answer :

1. In order to ensure that Canada works with the private- public partnership, the Federal conservative government of the company initiated the P3’s. The main objective of P3 was to have the support of provincial organizations with the Canada’s council. This initiative is still found in the Canada’s trading business today when it comes to theory, but a practical picture shows that all is not good when it comes to private- public partnership. In spite of all the regulations that have been made, it is noted that the Canadian is still in charge for most of the trade and international business, thus spacing out the private sector (Government of Canada, 2016). What can be seen here is that the government is not able to enforce the laws properly and does not give enough opportunity to have a shared vision for both public and private sectors. However, it has also been seen that in the era of digitalization, the change is about to come because of the growth of multinational corporations, distribution and delivery systems and vertical integration of entertainment are shifting the national policies and adapting to the change. These changes are already leading to an impact as the Canadian Government is realizing the fact that the only way to success is by collaborating with large, medium and small industries and have a shared vision for the country, while also befitting the particular interests for all. It is also to be pointed out that Canadian culture and trade have come under international scrutiny and the government has realized the importance of having an open market (Government of Canada, 2016). Further, in this regard the Canadian Government is also concerned about the fact that what exactly the result would be with this amalgamation of international business and trade between private and public sector as equals. In a message from the Minister of International Trade, it was pointed out that in order to move above in this competitive era, it is very important for Canada to keep challenging itself. In fact, the government’s Economic Action Plan of 2012 was build on the Global Commerce Strategy of consulting with Canada’s private sector to identify new markets, their strengths, weakness and opportunities (Government of Canada, 2016).
2. When it comes to trade and international business the Canadian government realizes the fact that it is very important to have private sector as its partner. This is due to the fact that the private companies accelerate trade and international business, while also ensuring sustainable economic development. This kind of a set up further ensures that eradication of poverty within Canada and the world takes place. Post 2015, the Canadian government is working to shift its traditional set up and ensure that the private sector, including large and medium businesses take active part in the development of goals and achieve them. Therefore, it is the need of hour to develop new partnership and mobilize the Canadian economy while boosting its trade businesses (Blanchard, E., 2015). However, there are considerable gaps in the system because the private and public sectors are not in sync with each other. Moreover, it is also being realized that the Canada’s trading as of now faces several challenges because it is not giving equal importance to all the sectors and with all the countries equally. As a matter of fact, it has been pointed out that the nation is quite limited to its approach in terms of trading, for instance, it provides a lot of focus to automotive and resource based business, while ignoring many others. Canada also trades mostly with the United States and does not have appropriate import/ export with other nations. Further, it is also affiliated to important companies and does not give chances to small businesses. Therefore, it is neither vague nor erroneous to point out that Canada in spite of having a developed private sector is not being able to utilize its potential properly and it does not have apt tools and policies to encourage a symmetric private- public partnership in terms of trade and international business (Hiscox, M., 2003).
3. There have been various studies and conclusions of Canadian attitudes and approach to the global business and international trade. It was found that there are several barriers in Canadian attitudes when it comes to international trade. One of them being s that they do not want to pursue global business and international trade with Asian countries and want to work only with the European Union and the United States of America. Although the exports from Canada have more than doubled in Asia 2000 onwards and Canadians also recognize the importance of Asian countries with China and India emerging as superpowers (Nathan, A., 2015). However, they still do not want to focus much on Asia because of their lack of experience with Asian countries and misperception of the economic development taking place there. We are in a world wherein most of the trading activities and international business are shifting their focus to the Asian markets; however, Canadians want to stay with limited countries of European Union. Moreover, this works as one of the worst downfall of Canada’s trading business because it shows that the Canadians are quite close to their approach and still keep up with traditional methods of trading. Further, there are also linguistic barriers to be found with Canada’s trading business, which is due to the fact that when Canada wants to trade with EU, they are not able to find the right kind of agent. For instance, Germany would like to talk business from their own local representative rather than someone from down south. This is another factor in which Canada is suffering with trade, as people have an attitude to work with local representatives and not with someone belonging to another culture (Nathan, A., 2015).
4. These are a few recommendations in terms of global business and international trade that can help Canada retain its image of a trading nation.
   • The first and the foremost being that Canada should revise its old policies and lay a practical approach in their trading businesses. Starting with the amalgamation of private and public sector, the country should use its vast private sector, including large, medium and small businesses and take their help in addressing the new markets and their potential. Canada should develop strong leadership that would support Canadian businesses in the international markets. Therefore, the trade policies of the country should be aligned with exporters and manufacturers of private sectors. Moreover, Canada should also enforce international laws and regulations so that it is able to compete with the world and increase its position in the trading sector (Blanchard, E., 2015).
   • Another important recommendation for Canada’s trading business is to have free trade negotiations because it is important to prioritize the access to foreign markets and develop international trade with different nations. The country should now negotiate with regional, multilateral and bilateral agreements that slash out the non- tariff and tariff barriers in the trading business. Further, Canada should negotiate market access and trade in international markets with tax agreements and investment projection especially with Europe, Latin America and India. Additionally it should also define and clearly develop new strategies to improve its trading relations with China (Hiscox, M., 2003).
   • The next important recommendation for Canada is to reinforce its trade rules by ensuring the effectiveness of a level playing field for private sector and manufacturers and exporters in Canada. The country should also enforce its IP protections and prohibit trading of counterfeit goods (Blanchard, E., 2015).