Canada to turn on trade charm
OTTAWA— Canada-U.S. trade observers say the Trudeau government should launch a whole new charm offensive to teach an incoming crop of rookie lawmakers about cross-border economic integration after American midterm elections gave Democrats’ new powers to control the North American trade deal’s passage.
But Canada’s federal government is dismissing concerns about Canada’s ability to close the deal on a new NAFTA, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The Democratic party, which traditionally embraces trade protectionist sentiment, gained the upper hand in the House of Representatives and is set to take control of key committees in charge of deciding how quickly implementation legislation for the USMCA will advance, or stall, through Congress.
The federal Liberal government says it doesn’t plan the kind of all-out full court press of new Democrat legislators that it carried on to woo American support throughout the NAFTA talks. Canada’s ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, told Canadian television networks he is “not particularly worried” that Democrats will try to block ratification of the USMCA.
“They may not be the biggest free-traders in the world but I think they see this agreement is good for Canada, it’s good for the United States,” MacNaughton said on CBC’s Power and Politics.
MacNaughton and other Canadian officials said they saw President Donald Trump’s reaction Wednesday to midterm results as a positive signal too.
During an extraordinarily acrimonious news conference where Trump slammed the media for not giving him credit for the booming economy, the U.S. president brushed off his past verbal slams of Canada’s prime minister.
He declared his rift with Justin Trudeau is repaired — “We have a very good relationship” — and said he would be able to work with Democrats to advance their interests in infrastructure and health care, and his interests in areas like border security and immigration. And, he said pointedly, the USMCA “has gotten rave reviews. Not going to lose companies anymore to other countries.”
Trump credited his use of tariffs on imports for retaining companies in America by giving them “a tremendous economic incentive, meaning it’s prohibitive for them” to move.