The Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute observes, after just over a year of negotiations on a revised North American Free Trade Agreement a deal looks possible but big questions remain.
The U.S. and Mexico announced Monday that they have reached a preliminary deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Colin Robertson, the Vice-President and a fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, says, with a key issue, content rules for the automobile apparently resolved, the Americans have also softened their stand on the issue of the sunset clause and possibly dispute settlement, leaving for Canada, three main outstanding issues, government procurement, labor mobility and dairy access.
The good news in this is that the United States, which President Trump has threatened time and time again and the President still talks about rescinding the NAFTA but in the meantime they are negotiating and they presumably are negotiating in good faith.
Certainly the other good news is that the U.S. is prepared to compromise on some of the issues that they had raised and said were not for negotiation. That included, for example, the sunset clause. That included dispute settlement, which they wanted to simply erase from the next agreement.
I think there is cautious room for optimism. The fact that we’ve now sorted out the auto issue and autos are important because they are the most traded commodity in North America and Mr. Trump will claim victory. If he is confident in doing that then I think he can declare a win and that may be enough to allow us to move forward and renew what ever we’re going to call the North American accord.
~ Colin Robertson, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Robertson says, while President Trump believes negotiations can wrap up this week, discussions are more likely to continue into the fall or winter but the coming days, and more likely weeks, will be a test of Canadian negotiators.
