Former prime minister Brian Mulroney weighs in on NAFTA negotiations //
Father of NAFTA says Ottawa won’t get deal if it doesn’t budge
WASHINGTON — Brian Mulroney says Canada needs to put a little more water in its milk if it expects to make a new NAFTA deal with a hard-bargaining U.S. president whose political fortunes depend heavily on being able to declare victory for American dairy farmers.
Mulroney, the former prime minister widely considered the father of the modern era of North American free trade, held court Tuesday in Ottawa on the fate of the intercontinental trade pact as talks to modernize NAFTA resumed on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Mulroney said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned him last weekend to discuss NAFTA and the two spoke for an hour. Overall, Mulroney thinks Canada is handling the talks well.
However, he had a clear message for Trudeau on Tuesday: If the Liberal government wants to make a deal, it better start dealing — particularly on access to Canadian markets for U.S. dairy producers, a critical issue for U.S. President Donald Trump.
“There is not going to be a deal — period — unless there is a compromise in that area, because that is what he campaigned on and it’s stuck to him and he’s stuck with it,” Mulroney said.
“So if we don’t find some way to accommodate some of that, then we’re not going to have a deal.”
Trudeau signalled in recent days that Canada might be prepared to show some flexibility there. “There’s a range of things we’ve been firm on and will continue to be firm on, but there’s also things we’re looking to be flexible on because it’s time to update this deal after 25 years,” he told Winnipeg radio station CJOB on Tuesday.
“We’re just going to stay working constructively to get to that win, win, win that we know is there.”
Mulroney acknowledged that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is on a short leash from the White House when it comes to what he can offer in the talks, but noted that Trump has a great deal of trust in Lighthizer.
“If Ambassador Lighthizer goes to the president in the Oval Office and says, ’Mr. President, I recommend we accept this deal with Canada; it’s not perfect, but it’s a good deal,’ then I think he takes it,’” Mulroney said. “He has great confidence and trust in Lighthizer. That I know for sure, right from the horse’s mouth.”
Lighthizer and Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, returned to the negotiating table for one day on Tuesday after leaving talks in the hands of officials since Friday.
Freeland used the fact that the day also happened to be the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington to make a point about two long-standing friends and neighbours.
“At the end of the day, we’re neighbours — and at the end of the day, neighbours help each other when they need help.”
On Canadian soil, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft was expressing much the same sentiment.
Craft, a fixture at the NAFTA talks last week, was in Gander, N.L., to commemorate the role that town played 17 years ago when the U.S. shut down its airspace, forcing airliners to find refuge wherever they could.
“Forget what you read about NAFTA negotiations and Twitter wars, that’s not who we are,” Craft told the crowd as she thanked Canada — and Gander — for playing host in 2001 to countless U.S. air passengers.
Ottawa and Washington are trying to reach a deal that could be submitted to the U.S. Congress by month’s end. A deal would see Canada join a preliminary trade agreement the U.S. struck last month with Mexico.
The U.S. has said it plans to present Congress with the deal it has with Mexico if Canada doesn’t sign. But a deal without Canada has virtually no chance of being passed, Mulroney said.