Stick to trade, jobs during NAFTA talks

We’re only at the close of Round 1, but NAFTA renegotiation is already suffering from what the Wall Street Journal labels “early fissures”. Canada needs to keep a steady hand and not panic. We also need to not get distracted by agendas that have little to do with the purpose of NAFTA — which is promoting good jobs and a minimal tariff regime.

The Liberals have been doing a good job so far on cozying up to almost every segment of the U.S. political scene and making them understand that many of our industries, like the auto sector, are tightly knit.

As foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland posted to social media that so far Canada has made 185 visits to the U.S. for NAFTA talks, met with 300 decision makers and hammered home the point that Canada is the largest export market for two-thirds of U.S. states.

Of all the files Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is grappling with, this is the one he’s dealing with most capably.

The challenge is that President Donald Trump doesn’t want just the “tweaks” he previously promised.

“I want to be clear that (Trump) is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and a couple of updated chapters,” Robert Lighthizer, the top U.S. trade negotiator, said over the weekend. “We feel that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement.”

A big sticking point is that the U.S. wants greater access to bid on Canadian and Mexican government procurement contracts while simultaneously bringing in Buy American provisions. That’s just not right. It’s not fair. We shouldn’t stand for it.

It’s the back-to-basics issues like these that matter most.

Yet bizarrely, the Liberals have put forward several progressive agenda items in their public relations campaign that aren’t consistent with the seriousness required.

A video produced by Freeland’s office calls for making NAFTA “more progressive” — wanting to see better provisions for the environment, gender issues and Indigenous rights.

We hope this is just feel-good rhetoric for their base and not serious negotiating points. We support all of these issues, but that’s just not what NAFTA is about.

Grow the strongest economy and there will be spoils we can all share in.

Grow the strongest economy and there will be spoils we can all share in.”