PARTNERS IN TRADE
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder prepare to speak at a news conference in the Art Gallery of Windsor on Friday. Wynne voiced concern over renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Describing certain Trump administration proposals as unacceptable, Premier Kathleen Wynne told a Windsor news conference on Friday that Canada will not consent to a new NAFTA deal at any cost.
“There are proposals on the table that are going to be impossible for Canada to accept,” Wynne said with Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder at her side. “And there are proposals on the table — some of the same proposals — that will make the cost of goods more expensive for consumers, and that’s not going to be good for any of our constituents.”
Wynne’s concerns about the North American Free Trade Agreement were expressed at the Art Gallery of Windsor, where she and other provincial and state leaders, including Quebec Minister of Transport Andre Fortin, met for the first day of the 2017 Summit of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers. The conference moves to Detroit for the weekend.
Wynne said this week the U.S. proposal for a 50-per-cent U.S., and 85-per-cent North American content requirement for vehicle manufacturing has been condemned by industry, workers and economic experts, not to mention the Canadian and Mexican governments. On Friday, she steered clear of details, but not her dislike of the latest American NAFTA suggestions.
“I don’t want to weigh in on the specifics except to say we are not interested in a deal at any cost,” she said. “We need a deal that’s good for the people of Canada and the people of Ontario.”
Wynne said Ontario and Canada are top trading jurisdictions with the U.S. in general and most states in particular, because of NAFTA, not despite it.
“The thing that is challenging about the situation is the freetrade agreement, NAFTA, has been good for all our constituents,” said Wynne, noting cars can cross the border as many as nine times while being built before they are ready for sale. “It has allowed all of our jurisdictions to do well.”
Wynne said renegotiating NAFTA, a President Donald Trump campaign pledge, makes sense perhaps with a few items, but not the whole accord.
“Going in, our hope in Ontario is that we would tweak the deal, that we would look at the things that haven’t been included: digital issues, e-commerce issues,” she said, noting that, if a trilateral agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico can’t be reached, then bilateral agreements will be sought. “But when it comes to really blowing up supply-chain agreements that have worked for 25 years, that’s a problem for us.”
Wynne said every U.S. governor and business leader she has spoken with expressed support for free trade.
Though Snyder did not criticize the U.S. NAFTA proposals as harshly as Wynne, he did suggest the working relationship between Michigan and Ontario is strong.
“It’s actually an opportunity for premiers and governors to have a voice in this dialogue,” Snyder said. “I hope we can be a positive, constructive force as those discussions go on.
“They appear to have gotten somewhat heated. But we can hopefully send a reinforcing message: ‘We’re all neighbours, we’re all friends, and the best answer is we mutually benefit together by finding ways to do more things together.’”