Era of free trade and investment is over, Canada's PM tells Apec summit

"The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has warned that the era of free trade and investment that formed the foundations of the postwar global economy has ended. In a stark message to Asia-Pacific leaders at the Apec summit in South Korea on Friday, Carney said rules-based open trade no longer worked in a global economy that was undergoing one of its most profound periods of change since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989."

"The old world of steady expansion of rules-based liberalised trade and investment, a world on which so much of our nations' prosperity very much Canada's included is based, that world is gone, Carney told a business event on the opening day of the summit in the historical town of Gyeongju. Carney indicated that Canada would edge away from its traditional dependence on trade with the US, saying it aimed to double non-US exports over the next decade."

Mark Carney warned that the era of rules-based free trade and investment that underpinned the postwar global economy has ended. He said rules-based open trade no longer worked amid profound global change since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Carney stated the old world of steady expansion and liberalised trade was gone and announced plans for Canada to edge away from traditional US dependence, aiming to double non-US exports over the next decade. Carney met Xi Jinping, who said China-Canada ties showed signs of recovery and invited Carney to visit China for constructive, pragmatic dialogue.

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