The Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says the fact that the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement will continue is cause for renewed optimism.
With round six of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement having concluded in Montreal negotiators are now preparing for round 7 next month in Mexico.
Colin Robertson, Vice President and a Fellow of Canadian Global Affairs Institute. says what is significant coming out of the Montreal Round is that they’re still standing and there will still be negotiations.
There was much concern going into this round that because we were going to taken on those provision relating to importantly dispute settlement, government procurement, rules of origin as it relates to autos, the sunset clause so called, if we were not able to make progress then President Trump or United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer might pull the plug.
The fact is we’re still negotiating and there’s going to be another round, this is all good news. I would say that going into this round there was fair bit of pessimism about whether this might be the end. But in fact we’re still standing and going forward.
One of the more significant things was that, in Montreal ten members of Congress led by the Chair of the Trade Committee within the House of Representatives was present and they acted, I think, as a kind of a positive force saying we who represent our constituents would like to see the NAFTA reformed but we would like to see the NAFTA continue.
~ Colin Robertson, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Robertson notes last week President Trump was in Davos, Switzerland where he delivered, by Trump standards, a fairly moderate speech where he stated, “Yes, America first but not America alone” and he made no reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Round seven of the NAFTA renegotiation is set for late next month in Mexico before heading back to Washington in March for what is currently scheduled as the final round of negotiations.
