CANADA SEEKS NEW CHAPTER ON GENDER,
OTTAWA• Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland’s objective to include gender and Indigenous chapters in a rejigged NAFTA is about political symbolism in Canada, experts suggest, with few convinced U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will make these a priority.
Freeland floated the idea Monday alongside higherprofile asks, as North American Free Trade Agreement negotiators meet this week to begin work on an update at Trump’s behest: preservation of supply management for dairy, for example, and investor-state dispute mechanisms.
But to include gender and Indigenous issues is unusual for a trade agreement and analysts say it seems intended to demonstrate the Liberal government’s progressive values at home.
“I view it as part and parcel of how the Trudeau government campaigned and came to office,” said Scotty Greenwood, a principal at Dentons in Washington, D.C. and former American diplomat to Canada. She noted Freeland’s speech and appearance at a House of Commons committee Monday are intended for a domestic audience.
Lawrence Herman, an international trade lawyer in Toronto, said he suspects Trump won’t bite and including such chapters could mean concessions from Canada in other areas, because in the end, “this is all about bargaining.”
More broadly, Herman said values are difficult to quantify and questioned whether their place is in a trade agreement. “I know there’s a desire on the part of Freeland and her Canadian colleagues to modernize the agreement. I’m just not certain how far you can take that quote, modernization, unquote, approach into areas that have not been addressed in standard trade agreements.”
Conservative Senator Michael MacDonald, who co- chairs the Canadian side of a bilateral parliamentary group and recently returned from a trip to meet state legislators, cut to the chase and said he thinks this is about “identity politics.”
“I don’t think trade agreements are about values. Trade agreements are about trade and money and jobs,” he said. “This is a big trade agreement. This is about billions of dollars. Let’s deal with what’s on the table here.”
Unlike chapters on environment and labour standards, which both feature in the recently- concluded Canada- European Union trade agreement and which Freeland is putting on the table for NAFTA, gender and Indigenous rights haven’t featured in major deals.
The only ready example is a gender chapter in an update to the Canada- Chile free trade agreement. Announced in June, the new addition to the text featured a variety of statements on shared values and the importance of gender equality. It didn’t commit either country to much action in practical terms, but mandated a joint committee.
It was an “important step for Canada,” though, Freeland said Monday. She noted Canada and the U. S. run a women’s business council together. “I think there is a really fruitful space for discussion.”
The Indigenous chapter idea has no obvious precedent. Freeland said it’s a “really fresh area” and the idea came from Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde, who sits on a NAFTA advisory council. He was not available for comment Monday.