Trudeau believes Trump about minor NAFTA tweaks
NEW YORK Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he takes U.S. President Donald Trump at his word when it comes to upcoming trade negotiations and continues to believe adjustments to NAFTA will be minor.
The prime minister made the remarks in an interview with NBC stalwart Tom Brokaw on an empty Broadway stage Wednesday, following a high-profile screening of a Canadian-themed play that was attended by the president’s daughter Ivanka. It also followed a few days of signals from some key actors in the U.S. that they want important changes in the deal. That includes members of an influential Senate committee who want to open up Canada’s controls on dairy and poultry imports.
It’s not yet clear whether those demands will wind up on the negotiating table when talks eventually start, or whether the lawmakers’ remarks about home-state industries reflect their own domestic politics.
Their remarks were a departure from the president’s: when he met Trudeau at the White House, Trump spoke of making only minor tweaks to the trade relationship with Canada and more significant ones with Mexico.
“I very much take him at his word when he talks about just making a few tweaks,” Trudeau told Brokaw on Thursday’s Today Show. “Because that’s what we’re always happy to do.”
It appears the changes this time will require a vote. The administration is committed to working with Congress now and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is talking about adding entire new chapters.
Trump’s nominee for trade czar was peppered with questions this week by the Senate committee that will be involved in consultations, and he expressed a willingness to raise supply management when senators pressed him on the effect that import controls have on their home-state economies.
The administration itself has made conflicting noises on whether Canada is an ally or adversary in these trade talks. On the one hand, Ross has spoken about tough negotiations with Canada and Mexico. On the other, trade adviser Peter Navarro is floating a North America First-type idea wherein car parts produced in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico would get more favourable treatment at the expense of imports from Asia.
On Wednesday, Carlos Gonzales Gutierrez, the Mexican consul general for Austin, Texas, said Canadians shouldn’t be naive enough to believe any deal to exclude Mexico from NAFTA wouldn’t hurt the Canadian economy as well.
But Gutierrez told The Canadian Press it would be in Canada’s best interest to fight to keep NAFTA as a trilateral agreement.
“I am no expert but I do know that our Canadian friends should not be naive to think that the disruption of the supply chains between Mexico and the United States will not affect Canada,” he said at a conference in Austin.