No NAFTA without Canada: Quebec negotiator

STOWE, VT. — The Trump administration doesn’t have the legal authority to side-swipe Canada and sign a bilateral trade deal with Mexico, Quebec’s chief NAFTA negotiator said Monday.

Raymond Bachand, an ex-Quebec finance minister, said “there is no worry whatsoever” the current one-on-one talks between the United States and Mexico will end in a trade deal signed without Canada.

Bilateral NAFTA negotiations between the two countries have been building momentum in recent weeks, while Canada has yet to return to the table this summer.

U.S. President Donald Trump recently stated a deal with Mexico “is coming along nicely” and “Canada must wait.” The president has also said he would be interested in signing separate deals with both countries.

Even if Trump really wanted that, Bachand said, he couldn’t get it. “If the U.S. wanted a bilateral deal — and they don’t, they’ve repeated often they want a trilateral deal — they don’t have legal authority.

“They have the authority from Congress to negotiate a trilateral NAFTA deal in a fast-track way — meaning Congress votes yes or no on the final deal once it’s been reached. They don’t have that (fast-track) authority for a bilateral deal.”

Bachand made the comments in Stowe, Vt., during the two-day annual conference between governors of New England states and the premiers of Quebec and the eastern Canadian provinces.