I’ll have something to say about the new trade agreement when more details are available. However, I understand that Canada’s farmers will make concessions under the deal. I’m a city kid. But for forty-five of my seventy one years, my neighbours have been farmers. And a new study concerns me.
Continue readingTag: NAFTA Renegotiations
Northern Reflections: Now Is Not The Time
As Parliament re-opens today, the Conservatives have vowed to turn up the heat on reaching a NAFTA deal. Michael Harris writes that Justin Trudeau would do well not to be in a rush to make a deal: The prime minister should get his staff to dig out the video of
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Boneheads
Yesterday, on his way to what comedian Bill Mahar calls one of his “Nuremberg Hillbillies Rallies,” Donald Trump threatened the “ruination” of Canada. Daniel Dale writes in The Toronto Star: He told reporters on Air Force One: “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time. Now, they’ve got
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: In The Long Run
Chrystia Freeland is back in Washington, trying to hammer out a trade deal. That’s no small task, given the fact that — as Bob Woodward’s new book and the recent anonymous editorial in The New York Times make painfully clear — Trump is off his presidential rocker. Part of the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Amigos No More
The days of The Three Amigos Summits, Susan Delacourt writes, are gone: The last one was held in Canada in the summer of 2016. No “Three Amigos” summit has been held since Donald Trump became president later that year. And chances of a reunion seem even more remote today, especially
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Actions And Rhetoric
Donald Trump has given Canada an ultimatum: Sign the new trade deal by Friday, or you’re out in the cold. Tom Walkom writes: Canada has been had. The Mexicans and Americans have agreed behind Canada’s back to cut a bilateral deal that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: No One Should Believe Him
Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he had reached a trade deal with Mexico. Like so much that comes from Trump’s mouth these days, that simply wasn’t true. Lawrence Herman writes: Telling the Mexican President that the United States might want to pursue a separate trade deal with them seems to
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Not His Strong Suites
Lawrence Martin writes that, if sanity prevails, Donald Trump will not impose tariffs on automobiles manufactured in Canada. Recently, there has been a strong chorus in favour of sanity and against Trump’s claim that the tariffs would strengthen American national security: Vehement voices came together Thursday at Commerce Department hearings
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: The Uglist American Of All
That’s the title of a best selling book about Donald Trump by David Corn and Michael Isikoff. Former American Ambassador Bruce Heyman writes that Trump is playing the same game with Canada. Heyman puts the relationship between Canada and the United States into perspective: With a border of 5,525 miles,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: NAFTA On the Rocks
During the past year, NAFTA has been encountering ill winds and rough seas. The ill winds come from the Blow Hard-in-Chief. Peter Clark writes: The Prime Minister has used his personal relationship with Trump to avoid crises. Now Canada is deemed “spoiled” and “difficult”. Trudeau is doing what a responsible
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: He Does Not Understand
Before anyone starts to agree with former prime minister Stephen Harper’s conclusion that the Liberals have been “napping on NAFTA,” Tim Harper suggests that they take a look at Stephen Harper’s record of dealing with Washington: While in opposition, Harper aligned himself with George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing,’’
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It Doesn’t Seem Obvious
Last week, Stephen Harper sent a memo to clients of his firm, Harper and Associates. The memo was titled “Napping on NAFTA.” The Toronto Sun reports that: The memo was obtained by The Canadian Press and it criticizes the Trudeau government in several areas: For too quickly rejecting U.S. proposals,
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Could He Be Right?
Sometimes irony is entertaining. Sometimes it hurts. Tom Walkom points to the irony of Donald Trump’s insistence on American content rules as part of NAFTA: Under NAFTA, automobiles manufactured anywhere in North America may be sold duty-free in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico. Since, at $2.45 (U.S.) an hour, Mexican
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: It’s The Politics, Stupid
Peter Donolo has an interesting column in this morning’s Globe and Mail. Donolo believes that the NAFTA negotiations are not about trade. They’re about politics. The giveaway is that the Americans still haven’t old us what they want. He writes: What does that mean for the NAFTA talks? Don’t hold
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Is NAFTA Dead?
Andrew Coyne’s conservative soul was perturbed by what Chrystia Freeland said yesterday: I said we should be prepared to walk away from the negotiations. I didn’t say we should deliberately sandbag them from the outset. The government of Canada has at last revealed its objectives for talks on renegotiating the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Empowering Labour
NAFTA is going to be re-negotiated. That’s fine with Linda McQuaig, so long as workers get a piece of the action. She writes: In reality, NAFTA has been key to the transformation of Canada over the last two decades, enabling corporations to become ever more dominant economically and politically, while
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Who Knows?
NAFTA will be renegotiated. But, Tim Harper writes, the negotiations will not be a disaster: Robert Lighthizer [Donald Trump’s Trade Representative] released his 18-page list of priorities for coming NAFTA negotiations, and there was none of that lightning and thunder. Reaction from Ottawa and Canadian trade experts was a polite
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: More Than Softwood and Dairy Products
In the coming NAFTA re-negotiations, Linda McQuaig argues that we should focus on Article 605 of the agreement: Article 605 limits the power of governments to cut back energy exports. So, for instance, Canada must continue to make available to Americans the same proportion of our energy as in the
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