Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) November 15, 2013. The fourth round of negotiations for Japan-Canada Economic Partnership Agreement was held in Ottawa from Tuesday, November 12 to Thursday, November 14, 2013.
The meeting was attended by, on the Japanese side, Mr. Jun Yokota, Ambassador in charge of Economic Diplomacy (Chief Delegate) and representatives from other relevant ministries, and on the Canadian side, Mr. Ian Burney, Assistant Deputy Minister forTrade Agreements and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade andDevelopment (Chief Negotiator) and representatives from other relevant departments. Both sides had fruitful discussions at this round.
Ottawa Start, November 13, 2013. The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa and the National Museum of Japanese History in Tokyo, Japan, have signed an agreement that paves the way for collaborations on research and exhibitions. The Memorandum of Understanding refers to the pursuit of collaborative research, the exchange of scholars and scholarship, and collaboration relating to exhibitions and educational activities. The agreement is expected to remain in force for the next six years.
Canadian Manufacturing, November 13, 2013. (Victoria) Premier Christy Clark is calling BC’s proposed liquefied natural-gas plants worldwide pollution-fighting machines despite concerns by climate scientists and environmental groups that they will belch millions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gas emissions into the sky.Clark said the province will be doing the world a favour if it can sell natural gas in China and Japan because natural gas is cleaner than China’s coal and safer than Japan’s nuclear power.
She came close to rejecting outright BC’s 2007 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets law that calls on the province to cut its GHG emissions by one-third by 2020.
Clark said timing is crucial to reach multi-billion-dollar deals with gas companies in China and Japan, and BC’s preoccupation with meeting its own pollution laws could impair the push to cash in on LNG developments.
“In terms of our GHG emissions, we can either decide that we want to get to yes or we are going to throw up barriers in the way of that that will ensure we don’t have a natural gas industry in BC,” she said. “I have never been an advocate of this view that the world’s air begins and ends at BC’s borders. It doesn’t.”
Clark said British Columbians can decide to support an industry that could create 100,000 jobs or start debates that place road blocks to what she calls an economic opportunity that could transform the province.
Clark has repeatedly said LNG development represents a trillion-dollar windfall that could eventually raise enough revenues to pay off the provincial debt, currently at more than $60 billion.
source: http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/fabrication/news/clark-says-bcs-lng-plants-will-do-the-world-a-clean-air-favour-123748?print