Jesse Kline: The conservative case for becoming an ‘associate member’ of the EU

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Judging by the reaction within some conservative circles to news that Prime Minister Mark Carney has spent months laying the groundwork for deeper integration with the European Union, one would think he was trying to revive the old Warsaw Pact and cozy up to the despot in Moscow, rather than improve relations with our liberal-democratic allies.

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While skepticism of the EU’s crushing bureaucracy and lax immigration policies, as well as Carney’s ability to follow through on his ambitions, is certainly warranted, this has the potential to be a huge benefit to Canada.

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Regardless of whether you think Carney could have done more to secure a deal with the United States, the fact remains that Canada is now locked into a trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump has shown himself to be an unpredictable and unreliable negotiating partner, violating the agreement he signed during his first term and upending nearly four decades of free trade.

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We should all hope that this is merely a temporary blip in our bilateral relationship. But in the meantime, the correct strategy is to diversify our trading relationship with the rest of the world, so Canadians have access to a wider array of goods and services, and our businesses have the ability to export to other jurisdictions.

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At the moment, around two-thirds of our exports head south, a level of concentration that has always posed a risk. Courting the Europeans does not prevent us from rekindling our relationship with the Americans, as international trade and co-operation are not zero-sum games. But it could open a world of possibilities for Canadian governments, businesses, consumers and students, while providing the impetus this country needs to build much-needed infrastructure.

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The devil, of course, will be in the details. The EU is a notoriously bureaucratic institution that imposes a high regulatory burden. But the Canadian government is also famous for its bureaucratic inefficiency and overabundance of regulations and red tape.

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The idea that we’re some sort of bastion of free markets attempting to hold the line against hordes of European socialists is simply unfounded. And in a speech on Wednesday in which she extended an invitation for Canada to become the first “associate member” of the bloc, EU President Ursula von der Leyen admitted that Europe needs to cut down on red tape and accelerate project approvals.

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Optimally, Canada will be able to strike a deal that won’t require the wholesale adoption of EU regulations, but there should be no doubt that harmonizing some of our existing rules would be a net benefit to everyone involved.

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There’s no reason, for example, for Canadians to think that our nutrition-labelling requirements for a box of cereal are so superior that we could not possibly adopt a different standard. If a requirement is good enough for 450-million Europeans from industrialized countries who speak a variety of languages, it should be acceptable to Canadians.