Governors, premiers gather for proxy on NAFTA
Charlottetown summit’s timing makes it a natural to assess high-stakes negotiations
U.S. President Donald Trump won’t be in Canada’s smallest province this weekend when New England governors meet with Eastern Canadian premiers to talk trade, but his latest threat to terminate NAFTA did arrive a few days early.
Even without Trump’s predictably dramatic rhetoric, the Charlottetown summit’s timing makes it a natural proxy of the high-stakes NAFTA negotiations that began last week in Washington and which will continue Sept. 1 in Mexico and Sept. 23 in Canada. Moreover, the meeting’s players are viscerally aware of how critical the free trade deal is to the 25 million people who live in New England and Eastern Canada’s economic neighbourhood, one divided only by a common border.
The region’s North-South trading relationships pre-date Canada’s 150 years of East-West confederation, and it would be a tall task to find another cluster of territories in North America where the integration of economies and supply chains is so firmly rooted. In fact, the recent apparition of Irving Oil’s familiar logo on an outfield wall at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park is a small acknowledgement of how trade linkages continue to grow in this region where NAFTA is a big deal.
The extra attention and scrutiny generated by the tension around NAFTA is, however, a bit unusual for the often sleepy summer conference that, since 1973, has annually brought together the leaders of Quebec, the Atlantic Provinces, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont.
This year, though, the spotlight is on governors and premiers who find themselves at NAFTA’s centre stage. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers have engaged in a NAFTA lobbying strategy that places a pronounced focus on the importance of state-toprovince trade relationships and seeks to build personal connections with governors and legislators from states where a great number of jobs depend on trade with Canada.
Of course, Trudeau attended the National Governors Association conference this summer in Rhode Island where he delivered an effective message of how and why Canada matters to the economic fortunes of so many U.S. states. While he was there, Trudeau met with Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo who will be in Charlottetown this weekend. Her small state is home to 27,600 jobs that directly depend on trade with Canada. Trudeau has also notably taken time to meet with Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas where 459,700 jobs depend on trade with Canada and Jay Inslee, the Governor of Washington State where the trade relationship is valued at 223,300 jobs.
Trudeau’s ministers have followed his lead meeting with governors or senior officials from states like California (1,166,100 jobs), Ohio (308,700 jobs), Michigan (259,000 jobs), Nebraska (57,400 jobs) and Maine (38,500 jobs), and Trudeau’s ambassador to the United States David MacNaughton participated in this summer’s Western Governors’ Association meetings in Montana alongside Liberal MPs.
MacNaughton will be in Charlottetown this weekend to participate in a forum on Canada-U.S. relations, and he will be joined by former U.S. Ambassador Frank McKenna, who will give a keynote speech as part of a program that will also focus on energy, climate change and emergencies, and food innovation.
In 1990 as the premier of New Brunswick, McKenna attended the annual meeting in Mystic, Connecticut where the “Mystic Covenant” was signed by the American governors and Canadian premiers which recognized “the necessity of a stronger North American presence in global economy” and resolved to co-operate and share information while “monitoring international trade discussions that affect both the economic growth and the economic wellbeing of the Region.”
By that definition NAFTA certainly qualifies, but it would be outdated to think governors and premiers still see themselves as limited to “monitoring” trade talks or anything less than an active role in discussions that will inevitably shape the economic future in their states and provinces.