The Vice-President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says increasingly vocal support from within the U.S. for retaining NAFTA will be crucial in determining the future of the agreement.
Discussions aimed at revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement will resume this week.
Colin Robertson, the Vice-President and a Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, says this debate is not likely to settled by Canadian efforts although we are making major efforts to remind the Americans that we are a reliable trading partner, a reliable ally and a good friend and neighbor and Mexico is doing something similar.
On the American side the threat of the end of NAFTA has brought out from the woodwork support that we thought was there but never actually saw it materialize. Now it has materialized, particularly among the farm community and among the a lot of the major manufactures. The farm community is particularly important because most of the farm community voted for Donald Trump.
On day 100 Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue when into the white house, the oval office with a map that showed the support of the farm community for Donald Trump and polling which showed that the farm community strongly supports the North American Free Trade Agreement and the President decided after that conversation to hold back on any rescindment.
Since that time we’ve seen the farm community, through the Farm Bureau, through the National Cattlemen’s Association, come out fairly vocally and using the new technology of tweets and advertising on the internet reminding farmers why NAFTA matters to them.
~ Colin Robertson, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Robertson says the ultimate fate of NAFTA will have to be up to Americans which is why the American debate and where America goes on this in Congress, at the state level and within the administration is so important.
