Canada Vows to Try to Replace U.S. in Trade With Nicaragua

Canada will not permit Nicaragua to use its new trade office in Toronto to circumvent the U.S. trade embargo, Canadian External Affairs Minister Joe Clark told Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Monday.

But Clark said that Canada disagrees with the Reagan Administration’s attempt at economic isolation of the leftist government in Managua. He vowed that Canadian businessmen will move vigorously to sell Canadian goods to Nicaragua as substitutes for the U.S. products blocked by the embargo.

“I explained our skepticism that the policy they (the U.S. government) are following will achieve the goals they have set and might achieve opposite goals,” Clark told a small group of reporters at the Canadian Embassy.

Clark was here for regular consultations with Shultz, which take place about every six months. But there was little doubt that discussions of the U.S. embargo of Nicaragua were far from routine.

Clark’s Explanation

Shultz raised questions about Managua’s announcement last week that it will move its North American trade office from Miami to Toronto, Clark said. But Clark said he explained that the move had been under consideration before the embargo was announced.

Shultz is “naturally concerned” that the new office should not be used as a conduit for trade between the United States and Nicaragua, Clark said. He added that Canada will “monitor the activities of that office” to prevent any transshipment of American goods.

At the same time, he said, Canada will “monitor the embargo” to make sure the United States does not attempt to interfere with Canadian trade with Nicaragua. He said Canada is financing a water purification plant and a thermal electric plant in the Central American nation.

Clark also said Canada will continue to urge the United States and the Soviet Union to reach arms control agreements but will not attempt to mediate, as former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau tried to do.

A Western Country

“We are a country of the West,” Clark said. “We will disagree with the United States on Policy A or Policy Q from time to time, but we agree with the alphabet. We do not want to take actions that would lead the Soviet Union to think it was possible to drive a wedge into the West.”

Meanwhile, President Roberto Suazo Cordova of Honduras arrived Monday for a two-day visit to Washington during which he and President Reagan are scheduled to issue a declaration reaffirming the United States’ commitment to defend Honduras against outside attack.

Honduras’ strongly pro-American government has allowed Nicaraguan contras to use its territory as a base for attacks against the leftist Sandinista regime to the south, touching off sporadic skirmishes along the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.