stephen s poloz : canada and mexico - common issues in uncommon times remarks by mr stephen s poloz, governor of the bank of canada, to the cancham mexico and club de industriales, mexico city, mexico, 4 may 2017. * * * i would like to thank rose cunningham and tatjana dahlhaus for their help in preparing this speech. introduction i am thankful for the opportunity to speak with you today, as it is a good time for our two countries to be talking. it is true that nobody will ever confuse mazatlan with manitoba, particularly in february. but it is also true that canada and mexico have more in common than is usually appreciated, especially on the economic front. a good deal of our commonality stems from the fact that we are both relatively small open economies that trade heavily with the economic powerhouse next door, the united states. but we share much more than a common neighbour. resources, particularly oil, are an important part of both of our economies. the automotive industry plays a vital role in our manufacturing sector, along with high - tech manufacturing such as communications and pharmaceuticals. and while we may be at different stages of our economic history, we are following a similar trajectory. in both countries, the service sector now makes up the majority of output — more than 60 per cent in mexico and 70 per cent in canada — and the shares are rising. finally, we are both committed to rules - based free trade, and we both maintain a floating exchange rate within an inflation - targeting framework for monetary policy. since we have so much in common, it is not surprising that shocks in the global economy have hit us in similar ways. now we are facing similar economic challenges. more important, we have similar opportunities that we can capitalize on by using our strengths. so today, i want to discuss recent developments in, and prospects for, the canadian economy, in a way that will hopefully resonate for the audience here in mexico. oil price shock let us start by looking back at the second half of 2014 and the collapse in oil prices. various benchmarks saw declines of more than 50 per cent. given the importance of oil to both canada and mexico, the shock represented a serious blow to our economies. it had a substantial impact on the terms of trade — the ratio of the prices a country receives for its exports relative to the prices it pays for its imports. canada ’ s terms of trade fell by roughly 11 per cent from the middle of 2014

david dodge : canada ’ s experiences of the past few decades speech by mr david dodge, governor of the bank of canada, to the spruce meadows roundtable, spruce meadows, alberta, 5 september 2003. * * * thanks to my colleagues from around the world for giving such a comprehensive review of the vital issues facing the global economy. one of the hazards of speaking last in these kinds of sessions is that those who speak before you may cover all the interesting territory, leaving you with the unenviable task of trying to tie everything together. in this case, however, going last is not so bad. that ’ s because, in order to tie together the issues discussed so far, we need to take a global view of the economy. and as far as canada is concerned, taking a global view has always been important. of course, every country is affected to some extent by what happens in the world economy. but canada, with its very open economy, has a particular need to keep an eye on the changing fortunes of the international scene. canada ’ s reliance on foreign trade has required us to be active internationalists for decades. louis rasminsky, who went on to become governor of the bank of canada, was one of canada ’ s delegates at the bretton woods conference that led to the creation of the international monetary fund ( imf ) and the world bank. rasminsky played an important role, formal and informal, at the talks. not only was he the chair of the drafting committee, he was also the peacemaker between the british delegation, led by john maynard keynes, and the u. s. delegation, led by treasury secretary harry dexter white. in the months leading up to bretton woods, it was rasminsky who kept the two key delegations talking. without his work, both as a skilled drafter and as a go - between, it ’ s entirely possible that the talks at bretton woods could have ended in failure. canada was also present at the 1947 havana conference, where we pushed for the establishment of an international trade organization. this was meant to be a body parallel to the imf, designed to establish and monitor a set of global trade rules. we didn ’ t get quite what we wanted, but the result was still certainly positive : the birth of the general agreement on tariffs and trade ( gatt ). in 1995, nearly five decades later, we were more successful, as we pushed the effort to turn the gatt into