The Development of Postwar Canadian Trade Policy: The Failure of the Anglo-European Option - Hardcover

Muirhead, Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0773509224 ISBN 13: 9780773509221

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992

Synopsis

B.W. Muirhead traces the development of Canadian trade policy and trade patterns from the Second World War to the election of the Diefenbaker government in 1957. Scholars have emphasized the importance of this period in determining Canadian trade patterns, but have disagreed about the options Canada had and the decisions Canadian governments made. Muirhead demonstrates that Canada's options were so severely constrained by the postwar context that there were in effect no choices to make. He thus makes a strong case against the theory that Canada "sold out" to the United States.

Muirhead agrees that any government must work to maximize national income and independent choice. He shows that Canada actively pursued a policy of multilateralism and non-discrimination as epitomized by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In addition, the government tried unsuccessfully to resurrect commercial ties with the United Kingdom, its largest pre-war overseas market. Muirhead finds that in both these efforts Canada was thwarted by postwar realities that hindered its exploitation of markets in Britain and Western Europe. The United States remained the only market able and willing to absorb the billions of dollars of Canadian exports on which Canada's prosperity depended.

About this title

About the Author

Bruce Muirhead is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Waterloo and the associate dean, Graduate Studies and Research. He is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He has written extensively on post-Second World War Canadian commercial, economic, and political history. He is the co-editor, along with Ron Harpelle, of "Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World: Canada and Research Development" (WLU Press, 2011).

Review

"an important book that will attract much attention from scholars in Canada, Britain, and the United States ... It is very timely because it provides the historical background to many of the contemporary debates about Canadian economic and trade policy ... The book will be a signifi-cant addition to Canadian political and economic history." John English, Department of History, University of Waterloo. "This book is a serious, scholarly piece of work, well researched, well organized, and well written, which addresses an important topic at an appropriate level and in an appropriate way." Ian M. Drummond, Department of Economics, University of Toronto.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773509224
• ISBN 13: 9780773509221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240