Leal optimistic of progress in NAFTA talks
Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal is on his way to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks in Montreal on Sunday, and he says he’s optimistic that talks will progress well this round.
Leal noted on Tuesday that The Wall Street Journal recently quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as saying he looks forward to this next round of negotiations.
“That’s a positive sign from the Trump administration – they’re very aware of the value of NAFTA,” Leal said.
Leal was also in Mexico City in November for NAFTA talks, where negotiators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico gathered.
During a prior round of negotiations in Washington, American negotiators tabled several controversial demands that Canada wouldn’t support.
The U.S. had put forward a plan to kill Canada’s supply management program for dairy, for instance. Leal said in November there’s no way Canada would stand for that. Yet the U.S. wasn’t showing signs of backing down in Mexico City, and Leal said at the time that talks progressed slowly.
There’s likely to be updates from Leal soon after talks wrap up in Montreal: Immediately upon his return, he has two speaking engagements.
Leal is going to Montreal early on Sunday morning and returning to Peterborough on Monday, in time for a lunchtime speech for Rotarians at the Holiday Inn.
Then on Tuesday morning, Leal will give a keynote address to the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference in Toronto at the Sheraton Centre Hotel.
Leal said he’ll be speaking in Toronto about NAFTA, as well as about investments in infrastructure in rural Ontario and the renewed interest in broadband in remote areas of the province.
The ROMA gathering will be the last major rural affairs conference before the provincial election in June, and it will also feature keynote addresses by Premier Kathleen Wynne and by James Raffan, the former executive director of the Canadian Canoe Museum.