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ECONOMIC OBJECTIVES

1. TRADE LIBERALIZATION

   Canada will emphasize that American unilateral and extraterritorial moves against trade and investment, such as the recent Helms-Burton legislation and prospective U.S. legislation regarding Iran and Libya are unacceptable moves that will evoke a reaction costly to the United States. According to sherpa Gordon Smith, Mr. Chretien will indeed raise the topic, but it will most likely not be included in the communique. This is mainly because the G7 will require consensus and also because in order to produce change, a member country cannot be isolated.

   Canada will also push for progress on trade liberalization in order to ensure a successful meeting of the WTO in Singapore this December. It will use Lyon to define the Singapore agenda, in a productive but balanced way that appeals to both developed and developing countries.

2. INTEGRATION OF THE THIRD WORLD INTO THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

   Canada will join with France to push for greater aid effectiveness, but will emphasize a wider approach embracing more targeted ODA, focused on sustainable development, poverty reduction, environmental enhancement, and the poorest countries unable to attract private capital. As Sub-Saharan Africa is a key interest, Canada will press for an agreement on multilateral debt relief covering a broad range of countries, and will support the sale of IMF gold for this purpose.

   In keeping with the Halifax Summit, Canada will push for IFIs to give enhanced consideration to sustainable development, good governance and low military expenditure in their lending.

   Canada will also stress the link between development and trade, arguing that real development comes from integrating the developing countries into the global trading system through the sound policies and open markets that attract private investment flows.

3. IFI REFORM

   The aggressive follow-up by Canada to the results of the Halifax Summit and Chretien's personal commitment to implementing the Halifax agenda make Canada interested in continuing the steady progress made on IFI reform to date.

4. RUSSIAN PARTICIPATION

   Canada has become very resistant to full Russian integration into any "G8" embracing core economic subjects, which are the proper preserve of established democracies, with stable polities and open market economies. Canada seeks to contain Russian participation in order to maintain the integrity of the G7 economic dialogue and its capacity for collective economic management. Broadly speaking, Canada supports Russian involvement "at a pace consistent with its own reforms."

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POLITICAL AND GLOBAL ISSUES OBJECTIVES

1. UNITED NATIONS REFORM

   As the leading G7 advocate of UN reform, Canada will push for the Lyon Summit to release a frank report card on the progress to date, and call concretely for much further progress on such issues as administrative and financial reform, and the need for G7 members to provide their promised financial support to the United Nations.

   Canada will continue to push forward the momentum for the UN Rapid Reaction Force so that it may be put into practice.

2. BOSNIA

   As Canada has long had peacekeepers in Bosnia, it will seek a general consensus that all P8 ground forces will remain in Bosnia as long as necessary to ensure the success of the peace process. While respecting the American President's domestic considerations, Canada continues to insist that US ground forces participate in the operation.

3. NIGERIA

   There is a growing domestic interest in the current abuse of basic human rights in the fellow Commonwealth country of Nigeria. Canada, and perhaps Chretien himself, wants to use the Lyon Summit to send a clear message to the Nigerian generals that they must respect the core criteria of good governance and democratic development.

4. NUCLEAR SAFETY

   Canada's environmental and anti-nuclear weapons commitments, its large Ukrainian population, and its CANDU reactor technology, make nuclear safety an important issue for Canada. At Lyon, Canada will push to secure its place at the forefront of nuclear-safe technology, affirm its Moscow Summit intention to reach agreement with Russia and the United States to dismantle nuclear weapons using CANDU reactor technology, and press for a fast and full implementation of the Moscow Summit agreements.