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heavily dependent on international trade for its national wealth than is the United States. In fact, Canada has some traits in common with many developing countries in terms of resource extraction and has regularly faced challenges to building and diversifying its industrial manufacturing base. This developmental preoccupation motivates Canadian governments to seek ways of maximizing economic returns and of using the international system in the Canadian economy’s service. Economic (and by extension political) development becomes an end in itself rather than a collateral or secondary aim of statecraft. Given Canada’s dependence on the United States for much of its economic prosperity, it is unsurprising that Canada would give priority to this aspect of partnership. Yet the trade-focused lenses through which Canada largely views its relationship with America remains a source of conflict.
The United States is no less interested in economic relations than Canada is. However, U.S. economic interests are, again, global in nature. Although the United States and Canada have enjoyed the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship for years, and though Canada is America’s number one export market, America’s trading partners are more diverse than Canada’s. More important, the United States has been instrumental in underwriting the entire postwar economic regime, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, underscoring once more the much broader stance America must often take in the management of its relationship with Canada. As a key G8 country, Canada routinely contributes to America’s international economic agenda. However, American leadership on these issues globally is indispensible; Canada’s is not. Hence, although bilateral trade disputes such as softwood lumber or border closures following outbreaks of mad cow disease become matters of national significance for Canadians, they do not register for most Americans alongside disputes with Europe over commercial aircraft or agriculture in the context of completing the WTO’s Doha round of trade talks.
Because trade and commercial activity have been so critical to Canada-U.S. relations, frequently spilling over into the political and