I am hopeful that this will be my last post on why Canada’s NAFTA negotiations are not working as I would very much like to see our great country move beyond North American trade discussions. Recently, Raymond Bachand, Quebec’s NAFTA negotiator, spoke to CBC about NAFTA negotiations and said he was not worried that the United States and Mexico are engaging in bilateral talks without Canada. In his opinion, the United States and Mexico are discussing automobiles and one or two issues which are of interest only to the United States and Mexico. With respect to automobiles, Mr. Bachand feels that Canada should not be worried because Canada’s position is the same as the United States and the United States would negotiate much harder against Mexico than Canada. Furthermore, Mr. Bachand stated that once the automobile issues are sorted out, the talks would once again become trilateral and the remaining major issues would be sorted out.
I want to believe Mr. Bachand, but with all due respect, it is difficult to believe him when President Trump is expressly stating that the United States is not currently negotiating with Canada and that Canada has to wait. Furthermore, while the United States and Mexico are discussing automobiles, the United States is threatening Canada with an auto tariff! So, in a supposed trilateral agreement involving automobiles, Canada is not at the table and is also threatened with an auto tariff if Canada doesn’t come to an agreement NAFTA. How did negotiations go so wrong?
Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, is on record stating that he is “hopeful that in the next several days we’ll have a breakthrough” and that there “are still some difficult issues to work through, as there always are at the end.” In other words, Robert Lighthizer feels that negotiations are almost at an end. Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo is also of the same mind and feels that a deal may be reached at the end of this month. In conclusion, both the United States and Mexican representatives feel like they are close to a NAFTA deal and a Canadian representative feels like discussions will be approaching the endgame after the United States and Mexico complete their talks without Canada. It makes sense that Canada has no idea what is going on as it is not at the negotiating table. To rub some extra salt into the NAFTA wound, Lighthizer said “I hope once we get [a deal] with Mexico then Canada will come along. I feel reasonably good about that.”
It now appears that in trade matters, Canada is the third wheel. Lighthizer’s comments clearly indicate that Canada’s interests will not be heard initially and that the United States hopes that Canada will simply accept most of the provisions discussed. I do not read all the news so I do not know if Mexico is objecting to this arrangement. Certainly, this is a marked change from the initial positioning where it was Canada and Mexico together negotiating with the United States. It now appears to be the United States and Mexico negotiating with Canada. Shocking.