PM stands by NAFTA
Despite fresh rumblings of a bilateral deal between the United States and Mexico, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is convinced that a full North American Free Trade Agreement is best for all three countries.
Trudeau said Friday that NAFTA remains the preferred option for ensuring prosperity for workers across North America.
“That’s why we’re committed to renegotiating and improving and updating NAFTA,” Trudeau told reporters in Markham, Ont.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue both said earlier this week that a deal with Mexico could come first, before one with Canada is struck.
Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy secretary, said this week that he will be in Washington next Thursday to resume NAFTA talks with U.S. officials.
Without elaborating Friday, Trudeau said: “We continue the discussions with the United States and Mexico.”
There is no immediate plan for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to travel to Washington next week for NAFTA talks, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Freeland, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and new International Trade Minister Jim Carr will visit Mexico City on Wednesday to meet Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his team.
Some of Trump’s senior cabinet members have already paid a visit to Mexico’s new leader, which left the president upbeat about future trade prospects with that country.
“We have had very good sessions with Mexico and with the new president of Mexico who won overwhelmingly,” Trump told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“And we’re doing really well on our trade agreement. So we’ll see what happens. We may do it separately with Mexico, and we’ll negotiate with Canada at a later time.”
Purdue persuaded Trump not to tear up NAFTA last year, but told the president during the meeting this week that separate deals with the two countries might be better for American farmers.
“They’re very anxiously await- ing the wins, and we hope that the deal with Mexico and then Canada can come along very quickly behind that,” said Purdue.
“They believe that you are an American-first president and they want to be with you. We just need to help their pocketbooks.”
While it might appear as if the stars are aligning for a MexicanU.S. pact, a leading Canadian business group said it is too early to press the panic button over NAFTA’s demise and its replacement with two separate deals.
That’s because the Mexicans and Americans remain as far apart as they have ever been on key issues such as the proposed five-year sunset clause that Trump wants, said Brian Kingston, vice-president of the Business Council of Canada.