Treaty of reciprocity canado-American

The treated reciprocity canado-American , so known under the name of treated Elgin - Marcy , was an agreement between the British North America and the the United States which related to the raw materials and which was active of 1855 with 1866.

Origins

After the the United Kingdom adopted the Free trade and repealed the Corn Laws , the British North-Americans had to find a new destination for their exports, in particular for the Blé and the Bois. The treaty of reciprocity was then negotiated by the British in the name of Canadian. In 1854, American agreed to eliminate the tax from 21% on the imports of natural resources. In exchange, American accepted fishing rights on the east coast. The treaty also included/understood rights of navigation for the two parts on the lakes and rivers.

Effects

With the Canada, there was a long time a debate in connection with the real effects of this treaty. After the introduction of this last, one saw a clear progression of Canadian exports in destination of the the United States and a fast rise of the Canadian economy, in particular in the southern part of the Ontario. During the years which followed, the Canadian economists judged this era of reciprocity like one period ostentation for the saving in their country. Exports to their neighbor increased by 33% after the treaty, whereas the American imports increased they only by 7%. Ten years later, the exchanges had doubled volume between the two countries.

After the Second world war, this positive opinion was disputed, in particular by historians L.H. Officer and L.B. Smith of the University of Toronto. They advanced that the rise of the exchanges was in fact due to the introduction of the rail-bound transport to Canada and by the increased requirements in resources for the United States caused by the American Civil War. They also remettèrent in question the advanced figures. Before the abrogation of the tax of importation, there was much smuggling. However, the cancellation of this tax would have caused to make the exchanges illegal legal and thus to increase the statistics, without to make state of a real increase in the number of commercial transactions and thus of an economic advancement. In 1855, there were few corn harvests in the United States and the United Kingdom. It is also obvious that the corn contributions coming from Russia were stopped by the Crimean War. All this brought to one period ostentation for the Canadian corn, which moreover was subjected to no tax. It was also advanced that these massive exports had a negative effect for the Canadian production, in particular exports of Lait and Orge, which affected the productions of Fromage and Bière.

End

The treaty was stopped by American in 1866 because those estimated that only Canada benefitted from it and because they protested against the Taxe Cayley-GATT, imposed by the Province of Canada on their manufactured goods. It was also suggested that the United States was ulcerated by the British not-official support with the confederated States during the American Civil War. Consequently, American wanted to alleviate their anger while making pay the price with the British colonies. This situation worried Canada and was one of the factors releases of the creation of the Canadian Confédération in 1867. After the creation of this new country, Canadian tried to restore this bond of reciprocity but American refused. Finally, Canadian the Prime Minister John A. Macdonald set up a system of taxes known under the name of National policy. In 1911, an agreement of free trade negotiated between the liberals of Wilfrid Bay-tree and American was rejected by the voters at the time of the Canadian federal election. The two nations joined GATT ( General Agreement one Tariffs and Trade ) apèrs the second world war, and the taxes started to decline little by little. It been necessary to await the ALE (Agreement of free trade canado-American), set up in 1988 by the conservatives of Brian Mulroney, to re-examine a real free trade enters the two countries.

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