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Future NAFTA talks face uphill battle as Mexico, Canada grapple with tariffs

The website communicates Canada and Mexico talk together to face the challenges of the new NAFTA talks. Mexico and Canada seem to have similar interests and want a three country agreement and not separate agreements. The USA seems to want separate agreements.
I learned that Canada and Mexico seem to want the same thing.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in Lima, Peru on Friday, April 13, 2018. Mexico and Canada renewed their commitment to the bare knuckled NAFTA renegotiation after absorbing the blow of the Trump administration's decision to impose potentially debilitating new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatri

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WASHINGTON - Any chance of a quick deal on a renegotiated NAFTA has been scuppered by U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to end an exemption for Canada and Mexico from crippling tariffs on steel and aluminum exports, Canadian government insiders say.

Indeed, one well-placed, senior official said the chances of striking any deal on NAFTA, ever, have "just fallen through the floor."

Trump, meanwhile, resurrected Friday an idea he's floated before - negotiating separate bilateral trade pacts with Canada and Mexico if no deal can be reached on modernizing the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement.

But coming one day after Trump antagonized both countries by using national security concerns to justify imposing tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminum on the U.S.'s NAFTA partners, Canadian officials said the renewed pitch for bilateral deals is a non-starter.

"The government commitment remains NAFTA," said one of several officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations and efforts to manage deteriorating relations with the United States.

While Mexican negotiators are scheduled to return to Washington next week to resume talks on the pivotal NAFTA issue of autos, Canadian officials say the round-the-clock phase of negotiations of the past few weeks is over. Talks will continue in a slower, less urgent fashion, with the next potential window for more intensive negotiations likely not coming until after the July 1 Mexican presidential election.

Even then, one senior official predicted the chances of striking a deal are slim. That's because the Trump administration has, in Canada's view, made a "massive, massive strategic blunder" in thinking it will be able to drive a harder bargain with a new Mexican president.

It's compounded that miscalculation by lifting the steel and aluminum tariff exemption on Mexico, the official said, predicting the move will compel presidential contenders to take an even harder line against U.S. trade practices during the campaign and, thus, limit the eventual winner's room to manoeuvre on NAFTA.

That could mean no deal will ultimately prove possible, which could provoke Trump to follow through on his oft-repeated threat to tear up NAFTA. However, Canadian officials contend such a unilateral move is likely illegal under U.S. law and, in any event, they expect a backlash from Congress, American business leaders and - most importantly for Trump - Republican fundraisers, who would probably force the president to back down.

Still, Trump reiterated Friday his preference for two separate trade deals with Canada and Mexico, rather than the continental pact.

"To be honest with you, I wouldn't mind seeing NAFTA where you'd go by a different name, where you'd make a separate deal with Canada and a separate deal with Mexico," he said after a meeting with North Korean officials.

"You're talking about a very different two countries. I wouldn't mind seeing a separate deal with Canada where you have one type of product ... and a separate deal with Mexico."

NAFTA, Trump repeated, has been "a lousy deal for the United States from day one.

"We lose a lot of money with Canada and we lose a fortune with Mexico. But it's not going to happen like that anymore," he said.

However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto are showing no sign of breaking up the united front they've demonstrated so far.

"The leaders expressed their strong concerns and deep disappointment with the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum exports," Trudeau's office said in a summary of a Thursday phone call with the Mexican leader.

"They also discussed the North American Free Trade negotiations and agreed to continue working toward a mutually beneficial outcome."

In retaliation for the tariffs imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum, Trudeau announced Thursday that Canada will impose $16.6 billion worth of "countermeasures" that hit a range of U.S. products, from flat-rolled steel to playing cards. Mexico also plans tariffs on a variety of U.S. products, including flat steel.

In the wake of the burgeoning trade war, some trade experts also question whether there might actually be a NAFTA negotiating table to return to given the reality of the political calendar. Mexico's presidential election is one month away and the U.S. congressional midterms follow in the fall.

Trump's latest move amounts to "blackmail" in the NAFTA renegotiation, although it doesn't kill chances of carving out a deal, said Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and a veteran of Canada's free trade battles.

Beatty said Canada should not walk away from the NAFTA table.

"We should not ever agree to blackmail of the nature that was proposed here," said Beatty, who was a federal cabinet minister at the time of the original Canada-U.S. free trade negotiation that produced NAFTA's precursor.

"We should remain at the table as long as there is a table to remain at, and look for a deal in which everyone wins."

Beatty said future negotiations have been altered by Trump's "classic bully techniques" which are designed "to extort the conditions that Donald Trump wants to see in NAFTA."

Eric Miller, of the Washington-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, said it is possible to move forward with NAFTA on a separate track from the tariff dispute. That's not unprecedented because when the original Canada-U.S. free trade talks were happening, the two countries were mired in the softwood lumber dispute.

But this time it's different, he said.

The key is for Canada to move forward with NAFTA while keeping the "damage done" in steel and aluminum contained in its own separate lane. After parsing the statements of Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Miller said it is clear the two countries want to do that.

"If the U.S. thinks this, in some way, will soften up Canada's position or make it want to give concessions to resolve the NAFTA, they are misunderstanding the situation," he said.

"Canada knows this is the big ball game and they have said from the very beginning they're not going to yield to pressure tactics."

A leading American trade lawyer said the window for serious NAFTA negotiations has simply closed for the year because it has been overtaken by the political calendar.

"I believe the real challenge on NAFTA will be Mexico. I do not believe we can proceed in any significant way on NAFTA before the July 1 election," said Dan Ujczo, of the firm Dickinson Wright PLLC.

Others said there's no way NAFTA's negotiators can look each other in the eye after Thursday's developments.

"It's hard to imagine how you negotiate with a knife to your throat," said Jean Simard, president of the Aluminum Association of Canada.

"I would break it off. That's not good faith."

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Future NAFTA talks face uphill battle as Mexico, Canada grapple with tariffs - 680 NEWS

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WASHINGTON - Any chance of a quick deal on a renegotiated NAFTA has been scuppered by U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to end an exemption for Canada and Mexico from crippling tariffs on steel and aluminum exports, Canadian government insiders say. Indeed, one well-placed, senior official said the chances of striking any deal on NAFTA, ...

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Canada and Mexico Prepare for Life After NAFTA

The website communicates the future of Mexico and Canada in the NAFTA talks. Donald Trump and the USA government are not interested in the old NAFTA deals and will not return to those old agreements. Canada and Mexico are now preparing for the consequences.

I learned some of the precautions that Mexico and Canada are taking after the new NAFTA talks.Canadian Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland speaks after the close of the sixth round of NAFTA meetings, Jan. 29, 2018. (Peter McCabe/AFP/Getty Images)

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After wrapping up a series of seemingly optimistic talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States, Canada, and Mexico showed just how far apart they remain on the thorniest issues. The continued impasse sets the stage for a final pressure-packed round of talks in Mexico City next month - if domestic politics in all three countries leave room for a deal at all this year.

Even as the Trump administration continues to try to compel its neighbors to accept a revised trade deal on its own terms, Canada and Mexico are forging ahead with new trade pacts of their own. That's a sign of how much the global economy has changed since NAFTA was written a quarter-century ago, and of continued global momentum for multilateral free trade agreements despite President Donald Trump's "America first" trade skepticism.

Canada and Mexico signed on last week to a new Trans-Pacific Partnership with nine other Pacific Rim nations, a massive trade pact that doesn't include the United States after Trump withdrew soon after taking office. Last fall, Canada's trade accord with the European Union went into effect - something the United States has yet to achieve. Mexico expects to revise its own trade deal with the European Union this spring.

And Mexico and Canada are both taking part in yet another free trade bloc, the Pacific Alliance, which now encompasses Colombia, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

"We can't just assume that, because we're the United States, that the world is going to agree to what we put out there," said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the U.S.-based Council of the Americas and a negotiator on the original NAFTA. "It's become a more diversified marketplace globally, and the administration is coming to terms with what that means."

Since talks to revise NAFTA began last year, the United States has insisted on conditions that both Canada and Mexico considered unacceptable. On Monday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland reiterated that U.S. proposals - including mandating more U.S.-made content in cars and automatically letting the trade pact expire after five years - are "unprecedented."

Former Mexican trade negotiators think the bare-knuckle U.S. approach shows a misunderstanding of how the economy has evolved since the 1990s, especially when it comes to the importance of the United States to its neighbors.

The Trump administration "thinks they have more leverage than they do, and they are overplaying their hand," said Antonio Ortiz-Mena, a former Mexican trade negotiator now at the Albright Stonebridge Group. "Mexico does have other options - they may not be ideal, but they're options that weren't available 25 years ago."

Those additional options are one reason that Mexico and Canada have so far pushed back against the toughest U.S. demands during a half-dozen rounds of talks to update NAFTA, which went into effect in 1994. After the latest round, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer quickly shot down the optimistic news reports suggesting the three sides were getting closer to resolving many of their differences.

He brushed aside a Canadian counterproposal to update the way NAFTA deals with automotive components by including more software and intellectual property; Ottawa figures that would benefit the United States and assuage Trump administration demands for more U.S. content in cars.

But Lighthizer said the Canadian proposal would lead to less North American content in vehicles and "is the opposite of what we were trying to do." That dismayed observers who thought the technology focus of the Canadian proposal could help bridge the gap on one of the most contentious issues in the talks.

"Canada apparently proposed a creative rethink of how and which of the internal parts make up the true value of a car, in light of nearly 25 years of technological advancements since the original NAFTA was negotiated," said Chad Bown, a trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Lighthizer dismissed that proposal out of hand."

While Trump himself often (and erroneously) takes aim at U.S.-Mexico trade, Lighthizer lit into Canada. Zeroing in on the trade balance, a favorite metric of Trump administration officials if not of trade experts, he bemoaned the U.S. trade deficit in goods with Canada, before lambasting a recent, sweeping Canadian complaint made before the World Trade Organization.

"It makes one wonder if all parties are truly committed to mutually beneficial trade," he said.

In response, Freeland made clear the philosophical gulf that separates the Trump administration's approach to trade from those of its closest partners.

"Canadians do not view trade as a zero-sum game in which one side must lose in order for the other to win," she said. And while dismissing trade balances as the best gauge of a trade relationship, she pointed out that the United States actually has an overall trade surplus with Canada in goods and services.

She also pushed back on the autos dispute, warning that the U.S. proposal mandating more American content risks "dismantling" cross-border supply chains that have sprung up in the last couple decades.

That leaves one last negotiating session in Mexico City next month to try to bridge the so-far-impassable divides. Lighthizer, while acknowledging that "some real headway was made" on less-contentious chapters, expressed frustration with the glacial progress of talks so far and said he expects the pace to accelerate in Mexico, where he hopes to see a "major breakthrough."

The problem is that even if negotiators could iron out acceptable solutions to the technical problems, the NAFTA talks are inseparable from politics. Mexico has presidential elections in July, which both shortens the time left to make a deal and makes Mexican leaders less able to concede anything to Washington.

This fall, U.S. congressional midterm elections create another pitfall for NAFTA. Trump campaigned on revising or even tearing up the accord and has made NAFTA-bashing a staple of his speeches, though he seems to have ruled out the idea of announcing the U.S. withdrawal in Tuesday's State of the Union address.

But he's also gotten an earful from those who have benefited from NAFTA - including many in the politically important Farm and Rust Belts. That leaves the administration facing a choice between backing down on a signature campaign pledge or threatening big chunks of the U.S. economy - in an election year.

"The problem for Trump is that he is getting a steady message from agriculture and industry: If he tears up NAFTA, nothing good happens. It's not going to bring back jobs, and it's going to create a lot of losers," said Charles Roh, a deputy chief U.S. negotiator of the original NAFTA agreement. "Then he'll own the outcome, a lot like with health care."

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Canada and Mexico Prepare for Life After NAFTA

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After wrapping up a series of seemingly optimistic talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States, Canada, and Mexico showed just how far apart they remain on the thorniest issues.

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NAFTA Negotiations: Canada Rejects US Push For Bilateral Trade Deal

In this video Canada will not bend to pressure of the steel tariffs that the USA has placed on Canada. As counter measures have been taken to oppose the steel tariffs that were placed on Canada. Canada has put counter tariffs on American steel and will not be bullied into negotiating new NAFTA agreements.
I learned that Canada has new plans to counter the pressure that Trump has put on Canadian government and will fight for what they want.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump take part in a joint press conference at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 2017.

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OTTAWA - The Canadian government is rejecting a push by the Trump administration to strike separate, bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico instead of pushing ahead with a stalled effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ottawa's refusal Tuesday to pursue a one-on-one trade deal with the United States came after Donald Trump's top economic adviser said the president was serious about pursuing bilateral agreements with its NAFTA partners.

"He is very seriously contemplating kind of a shift in the NAFTA negotiations," Larry Kudlow, director of Trump's National Economic Council, said Tuesday on the Fox News program "Fox and Friends."

"His preference now - and he asked me to convey this - is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately. He prefers bilateral negotiations and he's looking at two much different countries."

Kudlow also said he relayed Trump's message to a senior member of the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office.

He prefers bilateral negotiations and he's looking at two much different countries. Larry Kudlow on Donald Trump

The remarks are likely to create more cross-border economic uncertainty with the U.S. after Trump imposed stinging steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and Europe.

But they landed with a thud in Ottawa, where several Trudeau cabinet ministers insisted Tuesday that Ottawa remains singularly focused on a three-country deal.

"We want a trilateral agreement - we've always said this," said International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

"We know it works, we know it underpins a very integrated supply chain. So, when you talk about this issue you have to look at reality - the reality is that over the last 24 years we have built a very integrated supply chain, which has been good for (the) economy, good for consumers, good for workers on all sides."

The federal government also continued its outreach with top U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland discussed trade and tariffs with key Republicans while she was in Washington for the general assembly of the Organization of American States, a Canadian government official said. She met with her counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Sen. Bob Corker, the official said.

On Friday, Trump floated the idea of negotiating separate bilateral trade pacts with Canada and Mexico. On Tuesday, Kudlow doubled down.

Trump doesn't plan on withdrawing from NAFTA, but he wants to try a different approach, Kudlow said, adding that his boss "hates multilateral" treaties.

"Canada is a different country than Mexico - they have different problems, and you know, he's believed that bilaterals have always been better," Kudlow said.

"Now I know this is just three countries, but still, you know, oftentimes, when you have to compromise with a whole bunch of countries, you get the worst of the deals."

The tariffs, meanwhile, have further complicated the U.S.-Canada relationship - as well as the effort by Canadian politicians of different stripes to appear united when they press Washington on trade issues.
Watch: Trudeau responds to U.S. tariffs
The topic led off debate Tuesday in the House of Commons, where Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Liberals for announcing retaliatory tariffs that don't take effect until July 1 - a full month behind the U.S. measures.

"The U.S. tariff on steel is affecting those workers today," said Scheer, who noted Canada's steel industry employs more than 23,000 workers and indirectly supports more than 100,000 jobs.

"Why is the prime minister waiting ... to impose steel and aluminum countermeasures when those U.S. tariffs are in effect right now?"

During their exchange, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale accused Scheer of focusing on partisanship rather than maintaining a common front against American trade belligerence.

"Canada is fighting back to support Canadian workers and the businesses that employ them," Goodale said.

"From coast to coast, a very strong Team Canada effort is pulling together, except apparently for the leader of the Opposition."

After the U.S. announced it would impose the tariffs, a senior official told The Canadian Press that the chances of striking any deal on NAFTA - ever - had "just fallen through the floor."

"The government commitment remains NAFTA," said one of several officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations and the ongoing efforts to manage relations with the U.S.

Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto renewed their commitment to NAFTA last week after the tariffs were imposed. The two leaders "agreed to continue working toward a mutually beneficial outcome" on NAFTA, Trudeau's office said.
With a file from Lina Dib

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Canada Rejects U.S. Push To Replace NAFTA With Bilateral Trade Deal

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OTTAWA - The Canadian government is rejecting a push by the Trump administration to strike separate, bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico instead of pushing ahead with a stalled effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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The North American Free Trade Agreement-or NAFTA is a trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States since 1994. The purpose of this agreement removed taxes on products traded between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It benefits to help selling their goods and promoting economic growth abroad. You will learn about worlds largest free trade agreement between Canada Mexico and the United States.

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Chrystia Freeland urged to be a climate champion at NAFTA talks

The website communicates that Chrystia Freeland is focusing on the climate in the topic of the new NAFTA talks. She is being urged to include climate change into the new NAFTA talks.
I learned that the climate is also important a topic in the NAFTA deal. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to reporters in Ottawa on Dec. 19, 2018. File photo by Alex Tétreault

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As trade talks continue between Canada, the United States and Mexico, a collection of nearly 50 labour, environmental and anti-poverty groups is urging Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to champion climate change policies into the negotiations.

In a newly-released letter, the groups - including the Canadian Labour Congress, the National Farmers Union, Unifor and Oxfam Canada - warned that the country's current trade policies have a negative impact on sustainable development, the environment and communities.

"It jeopardizes the rights of Indigenous peoples, workers' rights, women's rights, and the right of communities to protect the air, land and water they depend on," said the May 2 letter to Freeland.

"This trade model privileges corporate rights and profits at the expense of people. We - members of Canada's labour, trade, justice and climate movements - call for an alternative model."

The letter said that the ongoing negotiations regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), provide an opportunity to reverse damage that they say has been caused by the agreement since 1994, including "an expansion of corporate rights over worker and community rights," environmental damage, and weakening regulations to protect public health, consumers and food safety.

The groups also proposed that the minister adopt a dozen principles and values to promote a fairer agreement, including calls for the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies by all three parties, as well as a rule that prevents Canada from reducing its fossil fuel production, the protection of public services, and a gender analysis of the impacts of trade.

"An alternative model of trade must be rooted in principles of equity, the primacy of human rights - including the rights of Indigenous peoples, women and girls, workers, migrants, farmers, and communities - and social and ecological justice," the letter said. "Furthermore, if Canada wishes to be an international champion of action on climate change, its trade policy must be compatible with its climate objectives."

Sharing wealth 'with all people, not just the privileged few'

Hassan Yussuf, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said in an interview that he has raised these issues with the minister. He explained that trade agreements have important impacts on the broader issue of climate change efforts and that Canada always needs to find ways to be better.

Yussuff has been participating on a government advisory panel that had a conference call with Freeland to discuss the latest developments on Monday.

He also noted that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made recent comments that stressed Canada should only sign trade deals that benefit everyone, including the middle class.

"Canadians realize access to the American market is vital and important," Yussuff said. "They also want to see it compatible with wealth that is shared with all people, not just the privileged few."

Yussuff also said that the negotiations provide a good opportunity to address some of the consequences of NAFTA, 25 years later, including provisions in Chapter 11 of the deal that allow companies to bypass domestic judicial systems and sue governments in tribunals that tend to favour corporate interests.

"I'm optimistic we will be able to get Chapter 11 out of the agreement," Yussuff said. "We have been very clear that this is something we took issue with right from the get go, so (Freeland) is certainly aware of our position."

He said that all of these issues are coming up, 25 years after NAFTA came into force, in a context where people can judge whether the original agreement fulfilled its promise to improve growth, as well as social programs with better benefits.

Yussuff said he doesn't think Canada has achieved this yet.

At the same time, he noted that neither the Americans, nor the Canadians appear to be moving on some of their negotiating positions. This would include a U.S. push to undo the rules surrounding supply management in Canada's dairy industry.

"These things always get solved at the last minute and we'll see if the American position evolves and reflects the demands that Canada made," he said.

Freeland's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Editor's note: This article was updated at 2 p.m. ET on May 2, with new comments from Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

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Chrystia Freeland urged to be a climate champion at NAFTA talks

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As trade talks continue between Canada, the United States and Mexico, a collection of nearly 50 labour, environmental and anti-poverty groups is urging Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to champion climate change policies into the negotiations.

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Killing NAFTA could safe Canada's economy
This graphic expresses that the new NAFTA problems can be better in the long run for Canada.
I learned that Canada could be better off and have more leverage in the NAFTA talks.Someday we may thank Trump for his NAFTA betrayal as it inadvertently reinvigorated our economy and jolted us out of our national complacency

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Someday we may thank Trump for his NAFTA betrayal as it inadvertently reinvigorated our economy and jolted us out of our national complacency

This week represents a critical threshold in the troubled North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

As the Montreal round of talks begins, it's obvious that very little common ground exists between the parties and almost no progress has been made on substantive issues.

It's time to face reality - NAFTA is as good as dead.

But the demise of the deal might just be the economic shock that Canada needs to put its house in order.

U.S. President Donald Trump is living up (down?) to his billing. During the 2016 presidential election, he promised to shake up the status quo and - clearly - he's following through. From blowing up the Trans-Pacific Partnership on trade to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, to moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, to radically overhauling the U.S. tax regime, to triggering an unprecedented shutdown of the U.S. government, a clear pattern is emerging. Everything that was sacred is a target for Trump's wrath.

It's time to stop being shocked by Trump's behaviour and accept it for what it is: a concerted (if uncoordinated) dismantling of the status quo.

The implications for Canada are chilling. Canada is an exporting nation and more than 75 percent of our exported goods and services go to the United States. Canada is the largest foreign supplier of oil, natural gas, and electricity to the U.S.

The numbers are impressive. Canada and the United States are each other's biggest trading partners, trading more than $2 billion in goods and services daily. Canadians are one of the biggest purchasers of U.S. goods and services. U.S. exports to Canada exceed all U.S. exports to China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore combined.

Economists have calculated that the bilateral trade between the two nations is worth $1.4 trillion, making it the world's largest and most comprehensive trading relationship. Needless to say, this cross-border relationship impacts millions of jobs in each country.

Regrettably, if Trump is true to form, he'll take the opportunity presented by an increasingly bitter stalemate in trade negotiations to unilaterally withdraw the United States from NAFTA.

So it's not if NAFTA will be blown up, it's when?

And what should Canada do next?

NAFTA has rapidly accelerated integration of the North American economies. But it has also contributed to the balkanization of Canada. It has unravelled the fabric of our shared national purpose, damaging the quality of our political union.

The ease of north-south trade has lessened the economic imperative that otherwise would lead the federal government to override petty provincialism. Trade within Canada is a national joke - we have freer trade with the European Union and the U.S. than we have domestically. Interprovincial trade is frustrated by a host of arbitrary barriers (legal and illegal) between provinces.

It's so bad that even municipalities restrict purchasing in favour of local suppliers - a policy that would fall on the first constitutional challenge. And yet there are no challenges. So Canada, from sea to sea to sea, is disintegrating in an ocean of petty rivalries.

Accounting and advisory giant BDO Dunwoody calls it a national disgrace.

Worse, the Canadian economy has been dumbed down by NAFTA. Canada is now principally a supplier of raw materials and/or base commodities. Our secondary manufacturing sector (largely in Ontario and Quebec) has been systematically decimated. Our role in the continental energy business has been reduced to being providers of base commodities (largely unprocessed bitumen and unrefined oil) that's regularly shipped directly to the United States, where it's sold at a major discount and then upgraded and refined.

However, the most troubling sector is technology. Technology is the future of all modern economies and yet Canadians are the poorest performers in the G7 when it comes to developing and commercializing the advanced technology. Lacking a functioning commercialization ecosystem, Canadian technology is routinely sold at pennies on the dollar to be fully developed outside the country.

It would be ironic in the extreme if someday we looked back on Trump's NAFTA betrayal and thanked him for inadvertently reinvigorating our economy and jolting us out of our national complacency.

© Troy Media
The views, opinions, and positions expressed by all Troy Media columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of NetNewsLedger.
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NetNewsLedger - Killing NAFTA could save Canada's economy

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Someday we may thank Trump for his NAFTA betrayal as it inadvertently reinvigorated our economy and jolted us out of our national complacency By Robert McGarvey Columnist Viewpoint This week represents a critical threshold in the troubled North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

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Trudeau to ramp up NAFTA charm offensive with tour of 3 U.S. cities

This graphic expresses that Trudeau the Prime Minster of Canada is making more time to address this NAFTA issue.
I learned that Trudeau is putting more pressure on the USA government.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a town hall event at Western University in London, Ont., on Thursday, January 11, 2018. Photo Credit: PC / Geoff Robins

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NAFTA images canadian content 2018 - Google Search

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Chief Canadian NAFTA negotiator not expecting progress on auto content rules

This graphic expresses that there is no solution in sight for many people who are directly affected by the NAFTA issue.
I learned that this has developed into a bigger issue and no easy solution will be reached any time soon.

Under NAFTA's current rules of origin, vehicles must have at least 62.5 per cent North American content to qualify for duty-free movement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Reports in the U.S. suggest the Americans are looking at raising the North American content to more than 70 per cent and adding a specific U.S. content requirement of anywhere from 35 to 50 per cent. (The Canadian Press)

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Despite tough talk from the U.S. about the job-killing impact of NAFTA on its automotive sector, Canada's chief negotiator isn't expecting to see a detailed American proposal on the matter during the latest round of talks to rewrite the continental trade pact.

Rules of origin will be "a subject for discussion but we're not expecting to see anything radically new at this point," Steve Verheul said Saturday.

Verheul made the comment as he arrived for the start of the third round of negotiations, the first at which Canada is playing host.

Concern has been mounting among trade experts that the year-end deadline for revamping NAFTA will be impossible to meet if negotiators don't start during this round to confront some of the most contentious issues, rules of origin prime among them.

Asked if he expects anything radically different on any file, Verheul said: "We'll really have to see. It's too early, I'm just walking in now."

Under NAFTA's current rules of origin, vehicles must have at least 62.5 per cent North American content to qualify for duty-free movement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

U.S. looking to add steel, electronic provisions

At the opening round of negotiations in Washington last month, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer pronounced that the North American content requirement must be raised and a specific American content requirement must be added, along with a way to verify that content.

But the U.S. has yet to provide any details.

Reports in the U.S. suggest the Americans are looking at raising the North American content to more than 70 per cent and adding a specific U.S. content requirement of anywhere from 35 to 50 per cent.

They are also looking to add steel and electronics, not currently covered by NAFTA, to the list of auto parts whose origin must be traced and accounted for under the content requirement.

On the eve of the third round, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross published a column in which he blasted NAFTA for allowing outside countries to provide parts for vehicles that aren't covered by the content requirement - likely an allusion to the rapidly increasing amount of electronic components which are primarily produced in China, Japan and Germany.

He cited a new study which found the American content of manufactured goods, specifically autos, imported from Canada and Mexico has dropped "significantly" since NAFTA went into effect in 1994.

"If we don't fix the rules of origin, negotiations on the rest of the agreement will fail to meaningfully shift the trade imbalance," Ross wrote.

"Our nation's ballooning trade deficit has gutted American manufacturing, killed jobs and sapped our wealth."

'Doubtful' of signing off on environment chapter during this round

For all that, Verheul's comments suggest the Americans still aren't ready to show their hand.

Canadian officials believe resolving American concerns about the exodus of automotive jobs to low-wage Mexico is the key to staving off U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to rip up NAFTA.

But while the Americans are focusing on the content requirement to remedy the problem, Canadian officials believe it would be more effective to set more stringent labour and environmental standards, which would raise wages and production costs in Mexico to levels closer to those in Canada and the U.S.

Verheul said it's "doubtful" negotiators will be able to sign off on the environment chapter during this round, which an American official had earlier suggested was possible.

Ottawa rolls out school buses for U.S. and Mexican teams

The negotiations are being held in Ottawa's former city hall, which is now part of Global Affairs Canada's turf.

While the building is in a scenic location on Sussex Drive at the junction of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, there are no hotels in the immediate vicinity.

Nor does the building have a restaurant or other amenties to cater to the negotiators. And there are none nearby.

So, the Canadian government housed the visiting negotiators in a variety of hotels around the national capital and even across the river in Gatineau, Que.'

It used yellow school buses to transport them Saturday from their hotels to the venue for the talks.

And it served them boxed lunches.

Canadian officials say it was a scramble to get a conference site and hotel rooms for all the members of each country's delegation after the dates for the third round were confirmed just two weeks ago.

There are some 200 people in the U.S. delegation and 160 in Mexico's. This being their home turf, Canada's delegation numbers almost 300 this time, but they at least are able to sleep in their own beds.

In each of the first two rounds, held in Washington and Mexico City respectively, the visiting countries' negotiating teams were put up in the same hotel at which the talks took place.

That allowed them easy access to each other and to restaurants and bars within the same facility.

Whereas there are typically months between rounds in most trade negotiations, the NAFTA rounds are being held roughly two weeks apart in a bid to reach a deal by the end of the year - a deadline many trade experts believe it will be impossible to meet.

In what may be a subtle reminder to the Americans that Canada has other trade options should President Donald Trump follow through on his threat to rip up NAFTA, a large banner is hanging in the corridor through which the negotiators must walk.

It trumpets the success of the Canada-European Union free trade agreement, which went into effect last week, and is covered with celebratory messages from Canadian trade officials who were involved in those protracted talks.

"At last!" reads one message, signed by Verheul.

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Canada's chief NAFTA negotiator 'not expecting to see anything radically new' on auto rules | CBC News

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Despite tough talk from the U.S. about the job-killing impact of NAFTA on its automotive sector, Canada's chief negotiator isn't expecting to see a detailed American proposal on the matter during the latest round of talks to rewrite the continental trade pact.

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Canadian government pushing back against Trump’s proposal for separate trade deals

In this video the new NAFTA deals are discussed. The American government does not want to withdraw from the NAFTA agreements completely, but instead pursue separate deals with Mexico and Canada. The Canadian government is against this deal and will not pursue it currently because they believe the old deal between the 3 countries  the USA, Canada, and Mexico is the best deal for every party. No solutions have been reached yet for the NAFTA agreements.

I learned from this video what both sides are negotiating for, I can now understand why there is a potential trade war and what the reason behind it is.

WATCH: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with Dawna Friesen to discuss many issues facing his government including the Trans Mountain pipeline purchase, NAFTA, amd the recent U.S. tariffs.

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The Canadian government is rejecting a push by the Trump administration to strike separate, bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico instead of pushing ahead with a stalled effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Ottawa's refusal Tuesday to pursue a one-on-one trade deal with the United States came after Donald Trump's top economic adviser said the president was serious about pursuing bilateral agreements with its NAFTA partners.

"He is very seriously contemplating kind of a shift in the NAFTA negotiations," Larry Kudlow, director of Trump's National Economic Council, said Tuesday on the Fox News program "Fox and Friends."

"His preference now - and he asked me to convey this - is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately. He prefers bilateral negotiations and he's looking at two much different countries."

Kudlow also said he relayed Trump's message to a senior member of the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office.

The remarks are likely to create more cross-border economic uncertainty with the U.S. after Trump imposed stinging steel and aluminum tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and Europe.

But they landed with a thud in Ottawa, where several Trudeau cabinet ministers insisted Tuesday that Ottawa remains singularly focused on a three-country deal.

"We want a trilateral agreement - we've always said this," said International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.

"We know it works, we know it underpins a very integrated supply chain. So, when you talk about this issue you have to look at reality - the reality is that over the last 24 years we have built a very integrated supply chain, which has been good for (the) economy, good for consumers, good for workers on all sides."

The federal government also continued its outreach with top U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Donald Trump considering separate trade deals with Canada, Mexico

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland discussed trade and tariffs with key Republicans while she was in Washington for the general assembly of the Organization of American States, a Canadian government official said. She met with her counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Sen. Bob Corker, the official said.

On Friday, Trump floated the idea of negotiating separate bilateral trade pacts with Canada and Mexico. On Tuesday, Kudlow doubled down.

Trump doesn't plan on withdrawing from NAFTA, but he wants to try a different approach, Kudlow said, adding that his boss "hates multilateral" treaties.

"Canada is a different country than Mexico - they have different problems, and you know, he's believed that bilaterals have always been better," Kudlow said.

READ MORE: In angering his closest allies, Trump is 'probably strengthening China's hand': U.S. trade rep

"Now I know this is just three countries, but still, you know, oftentimes, when you have to compromise with a whole bunch of countries, you get the worst of the deals."

The tariffs, meanwhile, have further complicated the U.S.-Canada relationship - as well as the effort by Canadian politicians of different stripes to appear united when they press Washington on trade issues.

The topic led off debate Tuesday in the House of Commons, where Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer criticized the Liberals for announcing retaliatory tariffs that don't take effect until July 1 - a full month behind the U.S. measures.

"The U.S. tariff on steel is affecting those workers today," said Scheer, who noted Canada's steel industry employs more than 23,000 workers and indirectly supports more than 100,000 jobs.

"Why is the prime minister waiting ... to impose steel and aluminum countermeasures when those U.S. tariffs are in effect right now?"

During their exchange, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale accused Scheer of focusing on partisanship rather than maintaining a common front against American trade belligerence.

"Canada is fighting back to support Canadian workers and the businesses that employ them," Goodale said.

"From coast to coast, a very strong Team Canada effort is pulling together, except apparently for the leader of the Opposition."

After the U.S. announced it would impose the tariffs, a senior official told The Canadian Press that the chances of striking any deal on NAFTA - ever - had "just fallen through the floor."

"The government commitment remains NAFTA," said one of several officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of negotiations and the ongoing efforts to manage relations with the U.S.

Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto renewed their commitment to NAFTA last week after the tariffs were imposed. The two leaders "agreed to continue working toward a mutually beneficial outcome" on NAFTA, Trudeau's office said.

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Canadian government pushing back against Trump's proposal for separate trade deals

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The Canadian government is rejecting a push by the Trump administration to strike separate, bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico instead of pushing ahead with a stalled effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Why Canadian dairy is triggering trade turmoil

In this video the dairy market has come in to question in the NAFTA debates. Donald Trump has called out the charges on dairy from Canada to the USA. The Canadian remains steadfast on not changing their NAFTA plans.

I learned that the USA is also interested in the dairy market as well as the steel industry in NAFTA talks.

WATCH: In addition to attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump has been lashing out at the dairy industry. Abigail Bimman takes a look at supply management and what it means as our country tries to trade on the world stage.

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In addition to attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump has been lashing out at Canada's dairy industry. Abigail Bimman takes a look at supply management and what it means as our country tries to trade on the world stage.

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Why Canadian dairy is triggering trade turmoil | Watch News Videos Online

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In addition to attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump has been lashing out at Canada's dairy industry. Abigail Bimman takes a look at supply management and what it means as our country tries to trade on the world stage.

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Q 1. What did you learn about the topic that most surprised  you?
A. I learned from NAFTA about trade between Canada, Mexico, and the USA. Before I did not know about NAFTA. This is really surprising for me the new government in the USA wants to abolish NAFTA and brings up new trading agreement.
Q 2. Provide a real-life example of how this topic is relevant or interesting for you?
A. This topic is interesting for me because Canada exports 80% of its goods to Mexico and the USA.
Q 3. Which research did you find most interesting?
A. The research I found most interesting is "Why Canadian dairy is triggering trade turmoil" because all Canadians stand together and show unity against Trump's tweet.