QUEBEC (CP) - The anti-globalization movement that continues to rock major economic summits with violent protests is finished, International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew pronounced Friday.
"I draw great satisfaction out of the fact that the phenomenon of anti-globalization has completely disappeared," Pettigrew said.
Although the recent Group of Eight summit in Evian, France, drew up to 50,000 protesters and included several violent incidents, Pettigrew insisted the nature of the protests has changed.
"I have noticed their steam has petered out," Pettigrew said.
Protesters stress alternative forms of globalization rather than attacking the entire concept as they did a few years ago in Quebec City and Seattle, he said.
"There has been a major change in tone," he said.
"The anti-globalization movement has realized that globalization could help everyone, in the south and poorer people in all societies."
Pettigrew was in Quebec City, the scene of anti-globalization riots during the Summit of the Americas in 2001, to announce that Ottawa will spend $24 million to help smaller countries adapt to an anticipated free trade zone in the Western Hemisphere.
The money will help countries adapt to new tariff and food-safety systems, along with other projects to help small nations take advantage of the anticipated Free Trade of the Americas agreement.
"I believe globalization has to be humanized," Pettigrew said. "I believe that is what we are doing now."
Pettigrew said the efforts of Canada and other countries to "humanize" trade and improve the transparency of agreements have helped make international trade more acceptable to activists.
The new trade agreement would create a free trade zone throughout the Western Hemisphere, excluding Cuba. Scheduled to go into effect in 2005, the agreement among 34 countries in the Americas would create the world's largest free-trade zone.
Several Latin American countries have said they will not be willing to sign the agreement by the 2005 deadline unless they get greater access to the United States agricultural market.
Pettigrew said he is confident the deal will be concluded by the deadline.
He noted that the United States pays $108 to subsidize each tonne of wheat, more than three times the subsidy paid by Canada despite two free trade agreements involving Canada and the United States.
"It's unbelievable that a cotton farmer in the United States gets $160,000 before even selling one pound of cotton on the market," he said, adding that agricultural-subsidy wars are also triggered by the European Union.
"We need deep reforms in the area of agriculture."
Canada has cut agricultural subsidies by 80 per cent in the past 12 years, Pettigrew said.
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