New trade deal is good for Canada, SACPA told
Canadian trade negotiators were hard-nosed. And in the end, a Lethbridge audience learned, their American opposites conceded on a number of important issues.
So apart from the name of the agreement, University of Lethbridge political science professor Chris Kukucha says Canada’s new trade agreement with the U.S. is very similar to the previous one.
President Trump wanted the name changed to the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, he says, but not much more really changed.
“Our minister (Chrystia Freeland) did a very good job dealing with the Americans,” Kukucha told participants at the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs.
And when negotiations stalled at the U.S.-imposed “deadline” late last month, he said, it was the Americans who called Ottawa to say they’d accept key Canadian demands.
That means the integrated “supply chain” automobile industry, Canada’s cultural industries and the Chapter 19 dispute resolution process remain protected, he said. Canada ceded a 3.6 per cent share of its highly protected dairy industry — with our producers gaining similar access to American markets.
But the U.S. president was ready to claim political victory after accepting a few changes to what he had called “the worst agreement in history.”
The timing, Kukucha observed, came as Americans were deciding how they’ll vote in their nation’s midterm elections.
Canada’s negotiators were no pushover, he said. Historically, Canada takes “extraordinarily tough positions. “And we don’t budge.” And they exasperated the Americans, he said, by bringing a series of Power Point presentations on key issues, underlining Canada’s concerns. And through the months of talks, Canadian political and business leaders went south to hold persuasive discussions with their U.S. counterparts.
Protecting Canada’s auto and dairy sectors was a political necessity, Kukucha told a questioner, because they’re focused in Ontario and Quebec — the nation’s most populous and politically powerful provinces.
While Canada didn’t officially call on the U.S. to reduce its subsidies on a myriad of agricultural products, he told another, no doubt they were used as an argument for Canada protecting its poultry and dairy producers.
As to Trump’s “national security” tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel,” he reminded a questioner they’re hurting American consumers as much as anyone else. But they’ll probably stay in place until the elections are over.
Longer-term, Kukucha said, the U.S. administration sees one of the agreement’s provisions as signalling a united front against some of China’s trading practices. If that restriction is breached, the U.S. could void the whole USMCA deal.
And that’s how President Trump likes to operate, he added. If there’s an agreement he doesn’t like, he’ll simply cancel it.