USA

Saturday September 15, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 15, 2018

Canadians who smoke marijuana legally, or work or invest in the industry, will be barred from the U.S.: Customs and Border Protection official

Canadians will be barred from entering the United States for smoking marijuana legally, for working in Canada’s legal marijuana industry and for investing in legal Canadian marijuana companies, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official says.

Todd Owen, who spoke to the U.S. website Politico, said the U.S. does not plan to change its border policies to account for Canada’s marijuana legalization, which takes effect on Oct. 17.

“We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” said Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the office of field operations.

Owen’s comments corroborated anecdotal reports that have accumulated over the course of the year. Canadians with links to the nascent legal industry, including venture capitalist Sam Znaimer and the chief executive of a B.C. agricultural machinery company, have already been given lifetime entry bans.

Owen said border officers will not begin asking every Canadian about their marijuana use.

He said, however, that officers might ask if “other questions lead there,” or “if there is a smell coming from the car,” or if a dog detects marijuana residue.

Owen did not specify how much equity a Canadian has to hold in a cannabis company to be denied entry. Scott Bernstein, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, said he is troubled by the lack of clarity.

Thousands of Canadians have shares in cannabis companies, which are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“They’re investing in a completely legal industry in Canada, but it happens to be the cannabis industry …. That person who owns a mutual fund and maybe doesn’t even know where their money is going, are they going to be covered as well?” Bernstein said.

Bernstein, who also expressed concern about U.S. profiling of people stereotyped as likely marijuana users, said the Canadian government should negotiate with the U.S. at least to secure entry for workers and investors.

But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that he does not think he has the right to press the U.S. on its admission policy. (Toronto Star) 

 

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) 

 

Thursday August 23, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 23, 2018

To impeach or not to impeach? Capitol Hill weighs the question after Cohen plea

Testimony from President Trump’s former longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Tuesday that Mr. Trump directed him to violate campaign finance law — claims he made as he pleaded guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations — renewed questions on Capitol Hill about the possibility of impeachment.

Cohen is not the only former Trump associate to be convicted of a crime — former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was found guilty of financial fraud-related crimes on Tuesday, former national security adviser Mike Flynn is awaiting sentencing, and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. But Cohen’s allegations point back to the president directly.

A number of Democrats are still being cautious on the possibility of pursuing impeachment. For Republicans, a top GOP aide tells CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes, “This is the most uncomfortable Republicans have been” about the president’s actions, but they still don’t plan to take more decisive action than they have in the past.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said impeaching Mr. Trump is “not a priority” for Democrats, telling the Associated Press after the Cohen and Manafort court decisions that “impeachment has to spring from something else.” Pelosi said she prefers that Democrats — if they take the House come November — conduct oversight hearings and let special counsel Robert Mueller do his job.

“I think that everyone is a little cautious about throwing around impeachment” — at least before the midterms, a Democratic strategist told CBS News. But if Democrats get win the House, that could change, the strategist added.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said Cohen’s claims are serious and troubling — but it’s “premature” to discuss impeachment, because “more information has to come forward” and it’s “too early in the process to be using these words.”

However,  Durbin warned of a “constitutional crisis” should Mr. Trump attempt to fire Mueller. (Source: CBS News)