Series 4 - Conferences

0.36 m of textual records

Professor Safarian was much sought after for his expertise in international trade. When Joe Clark, Secretary of State for External Affairs, established a Canadian National Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation in 1985, he invited Professor Safarian to be a member. Its purpose was to reflect "Canadian interests in the continuing Conference on Pacific Co-operation", and involved "contributions to the work of PEC Task Forces; attendance at workshops and subsequent Conferences, and arrangements for the Fifth Pacific Co-operation Conference, scheduled to be held in Vancouver on November 16 to 19, 1986."

Safarian had long been recognized as an expert in this field. In 1979 he had been invited to participate in the 10th Pacific Trade and Development Conference in Canberra but, at the last minute, was unable to attend. At the 11th Conference in Seoul the following year, he commented on two of the papers presented. For the next twelve years he participated in a bewildering array of conferences and meetings, largely organized by the Pacific Economic Co-operation (PEC) ["Committee" was usually added later, making it PECC] Task Force Co-ordinators, and for which, in addition to the usual correspondence, programmes, and briefing documents, he kept careful preparatory notes, drafts of papers given, and summary reports where he participated as a discussant.

In 1982, the Japanese Task Force on Direct Foreign Investment for the Pacific Basin Co-operation invited him to be an advisor to provide Canadian input to its Task Force for a seminar to be held in Jakarta in November, 1983. This dovetailed with another invitation to participate in the work of the newly formed Canadian Pacific Co-operation Committee, the purpose of which was to ensure tri-partite response to reports of the PECC Task Forces that were to meet in Bangkok in May, 1983 (Safarian was already a member of Canadian panels associated with that conference). A series of meeting were held in Ottawa to co-ordinate Canadian participation in these events and in the PECC Task Force workshops on Direct Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer and on Trade in Manufactured Goods that met in Tokyo and Seoul respectively in June.

In October, 1984, the PECC held two workshops in Hawaii -- on technology transfers, where Safarian presented a major paper, and on capital flows. Safarian kept copies of other papers presented, along with extensive notes on foreign direct investment in the Pacific Basin.

Working with the Canadian National Committee for Pacific Economic Co-operation, Safarian attended the PECC Conference on Direct Foreign Investment in Bangkok in April, 1986. Subsequent meetings included the 5th PECC Conference in Vancouver in November (at which he presented another paper), the International Seminar on New Technologies held in Rio de Janeiro in January, 1987, and the PECC Trade and Investment Workshop on the Uruguay Round at the end of August. In conjunction with these meetings, Safarian prepared a paper for the CNCPEC on the "improvement of data on foreign direct investment in the Pacific area".

The files for 1988 and 1989 cover the 6th PECC Conference held in Osaka in May, 1988 and Safarian's preparation for and participation in the 3rd Symposium on Pacific Energy Co-operation held in Tokyo in January, 1989. The last files in this series document the 3rd Global Contribution Seminar, held in Tokyo in May, 1992. At these, Professor Safarian either presented formal papers or led discussion groups.

1978-1980: B1996-0034/002(08)-(09)
1982-1986: B1996-0034/003(01)-(09)
1986-1992: B1996-0034/004(01)-(12)

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