Page 6, Thursday, December 23rd, 1971, V TFree Press' Special MAYOR NEWMAN: "CANADA WINNING THE BATTLE, LOSING THE WAR." In a s t a tement issued to outline his position on the current Canadian U. S. Auto Pact negotiations made in response tocriticismfrom labour leaders for his refusal to serve on the Ilsave the safe- g uar ds l committee, Mayor Desmond Newm an said, "My first objection was the slogan tsave the safeguards'. It is a catchy phrase, but frankly very mis- leading to the public and a gross over- s i m p 1 ification of a very complex pro- bi em."" Slogan Misleading "I find it m i s leading because it has b e e n a c k n o w I edged by all who have spoken on the matter that Canadian pro- duction has greatly exceeded the safe- guard ievel s contained in the pact which used 1964 as the base year. The figures show a 40 per cent improvement over five year s.I" A Need For Tact "If therefore, in the face of the pres- e n t s e r i o us economic circumstances that confront the United States, Canada refuses stubbornly to discuss and re- negotiate the auto pact, al 1 the Amer i- can government would need to do is quietly encourage the American car in- dustry toreduce its Canadian production down to levels legally provided for in the pact. "T h e resul t woul d be the loss of at 1 e a s t 2 0, 000 Canadian jobs. Canada would have won the battle and lost the war. " Risk of Tariff War Mayor Newman added if such an ac- t i on d i d occur Canada could do little without the risk of starting a tariff war be twe en the two countries. He ex- pl ained, "Very simply, we have no c h o i ce. We c an n ot be arbi trary, we ius t negotiate. And it is elementary of course, that in those negotiations in return f or any changes the Ameri cans mightseek, we would ourselves have to seek new assurances which would pro- tect the present jobs and future growth of the industry. " Backing Into Position He went on to stress, "But we can- EDITOR'S NOTE: The question of the p r e s e r vat ion of Canada's safeguards In the Canada-United States Auto Pact is i n deed a serious one. Where it is. essential to the Canadian public to have an under standing of the issue, there are now two strong and separate viewpoints on the question, most-especially in the area of how the recently formed "Save the Safeguards" committee is attempting todeal with the issue of the preservat- ion of Canada's safeguards in the Pact. T h e s e two c o n f licting viewpoints stem from two of the areas most leading, if no t the leading politicians, Whitby Mayor Desmond Newman, Oshawa- Whitby M. P. Edward Broadbent. The following comments of the two men are put forward by the 'Whi tby Free Press' not because the issue of the auto- pact i s a contentious one, but because itishopedthat in exposing the commen- t a r y of b o t h M r. Broadbent and Mr. N e w m a n, the r e ader may dr&Yv some e n 1 i g h t m ent , and therefore, hi sown conclusions on the issue at staké. n o t be d o c trinaire, and certainly not at this distance. We cannot as the com- mittee wou1dhave us do, back ourselves in to positions which may perhaps have short term benefits but which may seri- o u s I y a f f ect our future access to the North American market. I Mayor Newman feels that the reason th e Un i t e d States took such a harsh a c t i on was because of serious econo- mic conditions. He speculated the act- ions taken by President Nixon in August of this year as the r e s uit of the ever- increasing costs of the Vietnam War and al so because of the large amounts of m o n e y s pent by the Uni ted States for f o r e i gn aid. Japanese imports which have almost always been cheaper than U. S . made goods was another reason cited by the Mayor. "Ioo Much Force" The Mayor fet t the committee was trying to resolve the problem with "too much force", andhe suggested that with t h e Un i t e d States they have, "Quiet c o n f i dence and.support and give them the free dom to act in our best inter- ests. " M r. N e wman, after a meeting wi'th Mr. PepininOttawa, feels assured that the Canadian governmernt is sensi tive in the future needs of the auto industry and itp employees. Confidence in the Goveronent 0f the gove r nment, Mr. Newman says, ",I arn confident they will succeed again, not as visibly perhaps because the ground ru les have changed, but every bi t a s fundamentally as they did six year s ag o. 1, fo r o n e, wish them well and will back them to the hilt on this issue. They will get no letter from me." /HITBY FREE iPRESS Report ISSUE OSHAWA.WHITBY M.P., ED BROADBENT: , 'NCLEst SAM HARDLY BEING TAKEN ABVANTAGE." "Mayor Newman inhis statement to the press is simply fnot dealing with the three significant issues. ' Gravity of Safeguards Preservation "Number one, safeguards intended to p r e s e r ve a certain number of jobs in C a n a d a a r e essential in an industry w h i c h is owned and containedòutside ou r borders and which has tariff-free a c c e s s to the Canadian Market. This point has been received not only by my- self, but by the 1960 Royal Commission o n t h e auto industry and by numerous e d i t orial writers across the country, i n cluding those of the 'Windsor Star', perhaps the best informed on the whole question of the autopact. " False Issue "Secondly, Mayor Newman persist- ently refers to the 1964 safeguard level. Again he misses the point, or Hé'r- a te ly raises a false is e:The "Safe- g u a r d s Commi tteen' has made it abun- dantly clear that we want the safeguards i m p r o v e d at least up to the mimimum point, at which Canadians would produce the dollar value in automotive products which we consume. " Helping Out The U.S. "My t h i r d point deal s with 'helping out the United States. " "Mayor Newman bel ieves that Canada has an obligation to help the Americans in what he sees as their difficult econ- omic situation. I find this concern at the very best, misguided under the circum- stances." "M a y o r N e w m an should be aware a b o u t 600, 000 C a n a d ians are out of work and the prime objective of al1 Can- ad i an politicians should be to act in a way ~which i s interided to provide more jobs for Canada. The American govern- ment understandably is concerned with acting in its own self interest. Canadian Politicians "it is ridiculous that Canadian polit. i ci ans shoulId be doing their job for them. For anyone wishing a more compre- h e n s ive understanding of the question o f t he autopact i tself, Mr. Broadbent refers us to the "Auto Pact: Myths anc Reality" which follows. THE AUTO-PACT: In recent weeks it has emerged that the central economic objective for the Un i t ed States Government in terms of its trade with Canada has been to des- troy or al ter profoundly the Canada-U. S. Automotive Agreement. Since such ac t ion ncouild have disas trous conseq- uences f o r C an a da, i t is unfortunate t h a t n e i th er theLiberal Government nor our major news media (with one or two honourable exceptions) have alertec Canadians to ,this reality. lndeed, they h av e helped promulgate cer tairn mythE gge nera ted originaly in the United ~cohuedônpage7 AUTOPACT JOHN DeHART INSURANCE 24 Colborne E. Oshaw a P.O. Box #250, Ajax, Business Stimulators Ontario, Canada Public rRelations. Tailor Made Features L..Lou-. Dickson