Accurate Headline: After three years of U.S. recession, Canada looks East

The WSJ wants to pretend that Barack Obama is responsible for Canada making a good decision:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France signed an agreement Friday to begin negotiations for a free trade pact between Canada and the European Union. A Canada-EU study released last week outlines the joint economic benefits of such a partnership, with two-way trade estimated to increase 22.9% by 2014.

I guess the WSJ is more impressed with Barry O’s G-D-like powers than I am. Or maybe they just can’t read data:

Exports to the United States:
2002 347,051.8
2003 328,983.3
2004 350,576.3
2005 368,414.7
2006 361,440.4
2007 356,094.2

Imports from the United States:
2002 255,232.5
2003 240,356.3
2004 250,038.3
2005 259,348.2
2006 265,023.0
2007 269,752.5

Imports steadily rising, exports falling for the last three years (and basically flat to 2004), with 2008 probably not being great and 2009-2010 already looking dicey.

It’s a great move for Canada, but any delusion that it is Obama-, not data-driven should be confined to the WSJ editorial page.