Trump’s top adviser spells out what’s stalling NAFTA deal: milk
WASHINGTON The vexing issue of securing more American access to Canadian dairy remained a major obstacle in NAFTA negotiations as Canada’s lead minister left the U.S. capital Friday.
Larry Kudlow, the director of U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council, laid that out in the plainest terms possible Friday morning, hours before talks ended between Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland her U.S. counterpart, trade czar Robert Lighthizer.
“I think the United States would rather have a trade deal with Canada, but it has to be a good deal, right? And the word that continues to block the deal is m-i-l-k, OK?,” Kudlow said.
“I’m just saying, ‘Let go. Milk, dairy, drop the barriers, give our farmers a break and we can fix some other things.’ So I want to predict. I’ll just say Bob Lighthizer is doing a great job and the president is encouraging it.”
Freeland had come to Washington this week in an attempt to break the impasse in the 13-month renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was started at Trump’s behest.
A senior government official, briefing reporters on background, said Freeland was leaving Washington on Friday night, but would keep in touch with Lighthizer. Canadian and American negotiators would continue to meet, the official added.
Canada and the U.S. are trying to agree on a text that could be submitted to the U.S. Congress by month’s end in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week.
In addition to dairy, the two countries still have to resolve differences on culture and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada could be willing to be flexible on dairy, but Kudlow suggested Friday that Canada isn’t offering enough.
Officials are meeting “24-7” and “when we find issues that need to be elevated to the ministerial level, that’s where Ambassador Lighthizer and I need to talk,” Freeland said, adding that “there continues to be a lot of goodwill and good faith on both sides. The atmosphere continues to be constructive.”
The U.S. wants Canada to open its dairy market to greater American access, as it has done in two previous major trade agreements, with the European Union and in a re-booted Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The latter deal offered 10 other Pacific Rim countries access to 3.25 per cent of Canada’s dairy market — and most analysts predict the U.S. will settle for nothing less in NAFTA.
Trump also wants Canada to scrap its two-year-old pricing agreement that has restricted U.S. exports of ultra-filtered milk used to make dairy products.
Both those issues are nonstarters for the Canadian dairy industry, which makes the subject particularly politically charged in Ontario and Quebec.