Mike Pence a valuable partner on free trade: Freeland

OTTAWA — U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence has been a valuable partner to Canada because he supports free trade, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday.

Freeland says the government is looking forward to getting an update on U.S. efforts to ratify the new North American free trade pact when Pence visits Ottawa next week.

Canada has yet to table legislation in Parliament to ratify the new version of the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, a treaty President Donald Trump has lambasted and repeatedly threatened to tear up.

In the past, Freeland has labelled the Trump administration as protectionist, especially during the long and sometimes bitter NAFTA renegotiation.

Freeland presented a more conciliatory view of Pence, who will be in Ottawa next Thursday following the Trump administration’s decision last week to lift its controversial tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum. Canada and Mexico said it would have been difficult to ratify the new trade deal with the metals tariffs in place.

“It’s important for Canadians to remember that Vice-President Pence has been a strong and effective supporter of free trade. He has been someone who has spoken out in the United States about the value of NAFTA for both Canadians and Americans,” Freeland said after touring the Rio Tinto aluminum plant in Jonquiere, Que.

Freeland said Canada especially appreciated Pence’s positive comments about NAFTA during the July 2017 meeting of U.S. state governors in Rhode Island.

Freeland was seen taking notes during Pence’s speech, in which he said: “We will modernize NAFTA for the 21st century so that it is a win-win-win for all of our trading partners in North America.”

Hearing Pence use the phase “win-win-win” was significant, Freeland said.