Trade

Tuesday October 2, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 2, 2018

President Trump creates crises, then claims credit for solving them

September 5, 2018

President Trump’s specialty is to create crises and then claim credit for solving them. Last year, for example, he ratcheted up the rhetoric against Kim Jong Un — a.k.a. “Little Rocket Man” — threatening to rain “fire and fury” on North Korea. Trump now claims he and Kim “fell in love” after Kim sent him “beautiful letters,” and that, were it not for this bromance, “you’d be in a war” and “millions of people would have been killed.” In reality, no one thought a second Korean War was likely before Trump took office. That only became a serious risk because of his unhinged rhetoric.

Trump has applied this same template to the North

August 28, 2018

American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he spent years lambasting as “the worst trade deal ever approved.” According to Bob Woodward’s book “Fear: Trump in the White House,” Trump was on the verge of pulling out of NAFTA in April 2017, and had to be talked back from the brink by senior aides. He grudgingly remained in the deal while launching high-pressure negotiations to rework it.

Lo and behold, just ahead of a U.S.-imposed deadline on Sunday night, the United States, Mexico and Canada agreed on a revamped NAFTA. Trump triumphantly proclaimed on Twitter that this was a “wonderful new Trade Deal,” “historic,” and “a great deal for all three countries.” “NAFTA is dead,” said White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. Long live the new United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA).

June 13, 2018

In fact, the biggest change is the name of the trade deal, and it is not an improvement. Just try saying “USMCA.” It does not roll off the tongue the way “NAFTA” did. As for the substance, my Council on Foreign Relations colleague Benn Steil rightly describes the new agreement as “little more than margin edits.”

Trump’s biggest victory was in opening up slightly more of the Canadian dairy market for U.S. exports. This has long been an obsession for him. He complained in June: “Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products! They didn’t tell you that, did they? Not fair to our farmers.” Trump was right about the Canadian tariffs. What he didn’t mention is that the United States still ran a $474 million dairy surplus last year, with U.S. farmers selling five times more dairy goods to Canada than U.S. consumers bought from Canada. In any case, milk products represent just 0.06 percent of U.S.-Canada trade, 99 percent of which was already tariff-free. (Source: Washington Post) 

 

Thursday September 6, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 6, 2018

NAFTA talks resume as questions grow about Trump’s ability to deliver

Canada returns to the NAFTA table in Washington Wednesday after a four-day break in negotiations that appeared to be pretty stressful … for the American side.

August 28, 2018

The Trump administration’s failure to secure a deal before last Friday wasn’t well-received by key voices in Congress, where NAFTA’s fate ultimately will be decided.

By the end of the weekend, the White House seemed to have fallen out with an ally it had hoped would back a revised NAFTA: a union representing millions of working-class Americans, now souring on President Donald Trump’s ability to deliver.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday that officials continued their work over the weekend after negotiations broke off Friday. 

“We are looking forward to constructive conversations today,” she said before heading to the offices of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Fresh signs of perceived weakness in Washington may bolster Canada’s determination to reject a bad deal, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed publicly to do. Trudeau’s team spent the weekend talking to stakeholders and advisers to prepare for this week.

The tone Freeland set early in her public statements during the negotiations — a no-drama approach of working “intensely” and “constructively” and praising the “goodwill” of counterparts — seems to be holding firm.

Work continues to finalize the text before the next Congressional deadline at the end of the month. If all three parties remain serious about a signing ceremony before Mexico’s government changes hands Dec.1, the negotiated text is due by Sept. 30. (Source: CBC) 

 

Thursday August 30, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 30, 2018

U.S. is intent on ending supply management for Canadian dairy: Trudeau

April 20, 2017

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is obvious the Trump administration is intent on dismantling Canada’s supply management system.

But he says Canada won’t buckle on the issue at the NAFTA talks.

The vexing question of greater U.S. access to the Canada’s protected dairy sector is now pivotal as the NAFTA negotiations in Washington draw closer to President Donald Trump’s Friday deadline for a three-country deal.

A concession on dairy — which is explosive politically in Canada — is one of the few cards the Trudeau government has left to play at the bargaining table after the U.S. and Mexico reached their own side deal on Monday.

Experts say Trump has not specifically set his sights on dismantling supply management, and is more angry with a new classification of milk products that Canada introduced two years ago that he says has undercut U.S. exports and hurt his country’s farmers.

Trump says he’s optimistic a deal can be worked out with Canada by the end of week. (Source: Financial Post)

Tuesday August 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 28, 2018

Trump tries to put squeeze on Canada as U.S. and Mexico make NAFTA breakthrough

The U.S. and Mexico have come to a preliminary agreement on new North American rules for automotive manufacturing and for other industries — and President Donald Trump is using it to threaten Canada, using a novel tactic to try to pressure Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into a final deal.

August 18, 2018

The U.S.-Mexico deal, announced Monday, had widely been described as a preliminary, informal sub-agreement that would be folded into the broader North American Free Trade Agreement talks.

But the Trump administration, seeking to push Canada into concessions, is describing it as a separate trade agreement, a “United States-Mexico Trade Agreement,” that Canada can either choose to join or not.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said he would “get rid of the name NAFTA,” which he said has a “bad connotation.”

Trump again threatened Canada with auto tariffs.

March 23, 2005

“Canada will start negotiations shortly. I’ll be calling the prime minister very soon. And we’ll start negotiation, and if they’d like to negotiate fairly, we’ll do that.

“You know, they have tariffs of almost 300 per cent on some of our dairy products, and we can’t have that. We’re not going to stand for that.

“I think with Canada, frankly, the easiest thing we can do is to tariff their cars coming in,” Trump said.

“It’s a tremendous amount of money and it’s a very simple negotiation. It could end in one day and we take in a lot of money the following day. But I think we’ll give them a chance to probably have a separate deal. We can have a separate deal or we can put it into this deal.”

On its website, Trump’s administration described the deal with Mexico as a “preliminary agreement in principle.” (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday August 18, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 18, 2018

Donald Trump suggests U.S. deliberately freezing out Canada in NAFTA talks

U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting the United States has deliberately left Canada on the NAFTA sidelines as negotiations between Washington and Mexico have heated up in recent weeks.

July 27, 2018

During a televised cabinet meeting today, the U.S. president said his administration isn’t negotiating with Canada right now, before adding that its tariffs are too high and barriers too strong.

Officials from each country have insisted there’s nothing unusual about the one-on-one discussions on the three-country deal because it’s allowing the U.S. and Mexico sort tough bilateral issues, such as their differences on autos.

But some observers have argued Ottawa has been frozen out of the critical NAFTA negotiations and could eventually be forced into accepting a deal reached between its continental partners.

For four straight weeks, U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo have held bilateral NAFTA talks while Canada has been absent from the bargaining table.

During the cabinet meeting, Lighthizer told the room he’s hopeful for a NAFTA breakthrough with Mexico in the coming days – but Trump said he’s in no rush to make a deal unless it’s the right one. (Source: Global News) 

 

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