TALKS SHOW NEW CANADIAN CONFIDENCE, GROUP SAYS
Canada's decision to raise the issue
of a free trade pact with the U.S. was a sign of what many see
as a new spirit of Canadian self-confidence, a public policy
study group said 
    "It suggests the Canada of the immediate post-war period,
when it was a major player in the process of building a postwar
world," the Washington-based Atlantic Council said.
    U.S. and Canadian negotiators opened talks last summer
aimed at dismantling trade barriers between the two countries,
the world's biggest trading partners with crossborder shipments
of about 150 billion dlrs annually.
    The council's study said the trade talks, with a deadline
of October for an agreement, are the biggest issue in
U.S.-Canadian relations.
   The study said liberalized trade between the two countries
would improve the competitiveness of their economies in world
markets and lessen trade irritants which now mar their ties.
    The council said "in the past most Canadians have shied away
from the notion of a free-trade arrangement, fearing to be
overwhelmed economically and politically by a closer
association with a country 10 times their size in population."
    But at the same time, it added, Canadians realized their
domestic market was too small to permit the mass production and
sales needed to raise productivity to the level demanded by an
increasingly competitive world.
    The council said that in the talks, Canada is chiefly
interested in minimizing the imposing of U.S. duties against 
allegedly subsidized exports.
    A recent example was the 15 per cent duty the U.S. imposed
on Canadian lumber exports on grounds the shipments were being
subsidized.
    The council said the chief U.S. concerns included ending
curbs against U.S. banking, insurance, telecommunications, and
the so-called "cultural industries" - publishing, broadcasting
and films.
    It said other major U.S.-Canadian issues were defense
cooperation, "acid rain" and the U.S. rejection of a Canadian
assertion of sovereignty over waters of the Northwest Passage.
 Reuter
