The third round of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations kicked off in Ottawa this week, with Steve Verheul as Canada’s chief negotiator. While President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon negotiations if major changes are not made, Canada is attempting to strike a progressive deal with the United States and Mexico according to the CBC.
At the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a speech arguing that there is a growing interest to upkeep “worker-friendly policies,” which are key to securing public support.
When talks began in August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland outlined the 10 demands the Canadian government had when entering negotiations.
According to Prime Minister Trudeau’s speech last week, Canada is now pushing three main themes for the third round of negotiations:
- Progressive trade
- Promoting human rights
- Preserving the post-Second World War multilateral order
The prime minister wants to ensure more labour protections are in place, including stronger union protections for Mexican workers, and an end to U.S. right-to-work laws that limit the potential to go on strike.
“This is not the time for retrenchment. It is a time for the Atlantic democracies to renew our commitment to universal standards of rights and liberty, enforced through a multilateral, rules-based order that has promoted peace and stability, and stood the test of time,” Trudeau stated in his speech.
However, critics argue that Trudeau’s priorities on NAFTA have nothing to do with trade, citing more indigenous rights, gender equality, and labor protections are not helpful for the new deal.
University of Guelph economics professor Alan Ker believes that NAFTA has worked well for the economy so far, but believes a renegotiation will be beneficial.
“NAFTA negotiations will further benefit Canada and specifically the agricultural industry, since there are a number of new products that exist today, which didn’t exist on the current deal,” Ker said in an interview with The Ontarion.
When asked about the United States’ critical outlook on Canada’s supply management, Ker was confident that most of the terms in the current deal will remain the same.
“At this point, you don’t see farmers trying to exit supply management because it’s going away, the majority of it is just rhetoric,” Ker explained.
The federal government aims to see a newly negotiated deal by the end of the year; one that contains better job security and trade relations with the United States and Mexico.
Photo courtesy of Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion.