CULTURE BATTLE REMAINS AT NAFTA TALKS.
Culture battle remains at NAFTA talks, with status of Super Bowl ads unresolved
While Donald Trump has waged a public war with defiant National Football League players, Canada’s decision to allow the broadcast of glitzy American Super Bowl commercials has quietly festered at the NAFTA talks. The decision by Canada’s broadcast regulator to allow the sometimes iconic American advertisements to appear on Canadian television has raised the ire of U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer during the long renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. “The United States is very concerned about this policy,” Lighthizer wrote earlier this year in his annual report on barriers to U.S. trade. A day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a fullthroated defence of Canada’s cultural exemption in NAFTA, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is back in Washington on Wednesday to resume talks with Lighthizer. The negotiations are aimed at bringing Canada into the NAFTA fold, but Canada and the U.S. remain far apart on several issues including culture, dairy and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism. On Tuesday, Trudeau said Canada will not sign a deal that excludes a dispute resolution mechanism and exemptions for cultural industries. Canada and the U.S. need to present a text to the U.S. Congress by Oct. 1 in order to join the deal the Trump administration signed with Mexico last week. The overall goal is to reach a deal by Dec. 1 so Congress can give its approval to a revised NAFTA before Mexico’s new president takes office. Trump is threatening to move ahead on a deal with Mexico that excludes Canada. Sources familiar with the Canadian bargaining position say the cultural exemption Canada has insisted on preserving since NAFTA talks reopened 13 months ago remains an 11thhour sticking point. “The idea of preserving it remains an unresolved issue between the two,” said one source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivities surrounding the issue. Trudeau said Tuesday that waiving the cultural exemption would be tantamount to giving up Canadian sovereignty and identity. Lighthizer laid out his concerns about the issue in his March report to Trump on the trade barriers faced by the United States.