Posted on 10 July 2008
Ottawa, July 10, 2008 - Astana, the remarkably modern capital city of Kazakhstan, the fourth largest country in the world, adjacent to Russia and China, with neighbours including Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, last week hosted the 17th Annual Session of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), which is the largest parliamentary association in the world. Kazakhstan is a secular Muslim state and considered a developing democracy.
Senator Grafstein, Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and leader of the Liberal Democratic Reform Political Group there, sponsored a supplemental Resolution calling on all the Parliaments of the member states to promote liberalization of trade between North America and Europe, including harmonization of standards and elimination of regulatory barriers. And, further, to develop trans-Atlantic partnership agreements to expand on liberalized trade.
Senator Grafstein then called for a Mediterranean Free Trade Area including all OSCE PA Mediterranean partners in a separate supplemental Resolution.
Senator Grafstein, in sponsoring this Resolution, said: “History teaches us that free trade was the harbinger of civilization starting in the ancient Mediterranean basin itself. Free trade between peoples began a system of international law. Commercial law and practices came before the civil rule of law. Indeed, the first rules of law including individual rights found their origins in the rules of commercial law. The Mediterranean region needs a jolt on the free trade track. While the political track is languishing, the free trade track is more open.”
The Senator ended by saying: “This Resolution will promote economic development between all the states along the Mediterranean basin critical to the promotion of peace in the region. President Szarkozy of France called for a new Economic Union in the Mediterranean recently. No region in the world needs more new jobs more quickly to foster peace and stability. This Resolution was unanimously passed in committee and in the plenary and welcomed by all member states Parliamentarians.”
Senator Grafstein plans to table this Resolution in the Senate of Canada in Ottawa in the fall for further consideration