Evaluating Canadian economic diplomacy: Canada's relations with emerging markets in the Americas

Abstract

Under the Canadian Strategy for the Americas, announced in Santiago, Chile, in 2007, the Harper government committed itself to making the Americas a top priority in Canadian foreign policy and to increasing Canada's presence in the region. The Americas Strategy can be seen as a precursor to later attempts by the Canadian government to develop stronger economic ties with the world's “emerging economies.” The 2013 announcement of the Global Markets Action Plan (GMAP) signaled an intensification of the commercial focus of the Americas Strategy (while extending the geographic focus to other emerging economies). This article examines Canadian policies toward Latin America, with particular emphasis on the two largest and most important regional markets, Mexico and Brazil. It argues that the Americas Strategy is best interpreted as a form of “global bricolage”, a haphazard attempt to cobble together a response to the rise of emerging markets in the Americas, rather than a consistent and coherent strategy. As a result, Canada's diplomatic relations with both countries have shifted between indifference and hostility, and the trade record has been lacklustre.