Canadians, Mexicans shrug off Trump threat to blow up NAFTA

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is playing down the latest threat from U.S. President Donald Trump that the North American Free Trade Agreement is a bad deal from which the U.S. will likely exit.

Trump’s latest threat to “terminate” NAFTA came during a campaign-style speech at a rally in Arizona on Tuesday night, when he told the crowd he didn’t think a new deal on NAFTA good enough for the United States was possible. It is not the first time he has made such a threat, but it is the first time since Canada, the U.S. and Mexico sat down to start renegotiating the 24-year-old trade agreement.

Trudeau’s response Wednesday was to stay the course. “We’re going to stay focused on what we’ve always known and what we’ve always said, that the North American Free Trade Agreement has resulted in millions of good jobs on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border and is of benefit to both Canadians and Americans,” he said during a news conference in Montreal.

“There are opportunities we have to improve and update the North American Free Trade Agreement and we’re negotiating in good faith and working hard to do just that, but we’re going to stay focused on the hard work we have ahead of us at the negotiating table and that’s how we’ve approached this from the very beginning and I don’t see anything changing in that.”

Canada’s pro-NAFTA offensive in the U.S. has included intense lobbying to both state and congressional representatives with data showing nine million American jobs depend on trade and investment with Canada.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was unavailable to comment, but had predicted Trump would threaten to bail on NAFTA during her appearance before a House of Commons committee last week when she said there likely would be “dramatic moments ahead.”

Mexico’s foreign minister also shrugged off the Trump tirade as par for the course, initially tweeting Mexico would remain at the table, calm and firm.

He said Trump was “negotiating in his own particular style.”

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said “President Trump has been clear from the very beginning that if the NAFTA renegotiation is unsuccessful, he will withdraw from the agreement.”