The politics of investment in the Americas: Canada, Brazil, and the (Post-)Neoliberal State

Abstract

Since Canada's 2007 decision to re-engage the Americas, Canadian policy-makers have been increasingly preoccupied with Brazil. As an emerging global power with a burgeoning domestic market, Brazil is central to Canada's efforts to expand investment interests in Latin America. With the election of the Worker's Party in 2002, Brazil moved in a post-neoliberal direction, extending social coverage through government intervention and strengthening intraregional relations. Canada, meanwhile, continues to advance neoliberal prescriptions in its relations abroad, exemplified by the investment rules it champions to secure opportunities for Canadian business.

In this paper, we examine how these countries' foreign investment strategies reflect different domestic sociopolitical contexts. We contend that this is a necessary first step to understanding some of the implications of these strategies in the context of shifting politics in the Americas, and especially for Brazilian–Canadian relations. In particular, Brazil's hesitancy to deepen relations with Canada may be indicative of the increasing irrelevance of Canada's approach in the Americas, where investment approaches are contested and multiple. Exploring the politics of foreign investment in the Americas contributes to understandings of how domestic political-economic contexts impact foreign policy and how neoliberal/post-neoliberal states interact in regional contexts.

Résumé

Depuis la décision du Canada, en 2007, de relancer sa présence dans les Amériques, les décideurs politiques sont de plus en plus préoccupés par le Brésil. En tant que puissance mondiale émergente dont le marché est florissant, celui-ci est au cœur des efforts d'expansion des intérêts d'investissement du Canada en Amérique Latine. Suite à l'élection du Parti des Travailleurs en 2002, le Brésil a choisi de suivre une voie post-libérale en élargissant la protection sociale à travers les interventions gouvernementales et le renforcement des relations intra-régionales. Entre-temps, le Canada continue de faire progresser ses prescriptions néolibérales dans ses relations avec l'étranger, comme l'illustrent les règles d'investissement qu'il soutient dans le but de conforter les intérêts des entreprises canadiennes. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment les stratégies d'investissement dans ces pays étrangers reflètent les différents contextes socio-politiques nationaux. Nous soutenons qu'il s'agit là d'une première étape nécessaire à la compréhension de certaines des conséquences de ces stratégies dans le contexte des politiques changeantes dans les Amériques, où les approches en matière d'investissement sont controversées et multiples. L'analyse de la politique des investissements étrangers dans les Amériques contribue à expliquer comment les contextes politico-économiques nationaux impactent la politique des Affaires Étrangères et comment les États néolibéraux/post-néolibéraux interagissent dans les contextes régionaux.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• Canada
• foreign investment policy
• neoliberalism
• post-neoliberalism

Notes

1. Consistent with a critical neo-Gramscian analytical framework, neoliberalism is not considered to be an American project, although the United States plays an important role in its promotion and maintenance. Rather, global neoliberalism has been dependent on social relations that cross borders while also remaining fixed, meaning that national specificities coexist with what Gill calls “disciplinary neoliberalism,” which seeks to eliminate difference as it makes liberalism transnational (1995, p. 411).

2. Canadian extractive firms have been heavily lobbying the government for the adoption of favorable policy options. In 2012, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Canadian Mining Association were among the top three industry associations in terms of meetings held with federal officials, according to a lobbying registry made public by the Hill Times (2013). According to both industry associations’ websites, both companies advocate the adoption of investment rules.

3. The variance in Brazilian and Canadian foreign investment strategies is in part explained by the countries’ geographic and demographic traits, as well as the countries’ unique positions in global and regional political economies. For instance, Canada's geographical proximity to the United States is used to justify the country's economic dependency on continental integration. Yet the specific forms that foreign investment policy have taken in Canada and Brazil reflect varying country experiences in balancing domestic interests with the opening of their economies to foreign penetration.

4. This aspect of investment policy aligns with the PT's decidedly post-neoliberal attention to workers through increases in the minimum wage (Ban 2013).