Op-Eds
So we now know what the U.S. objectives are in the forthcoming North American free-trade agreement renegotiations.
Some of what was sent by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to the Congress on Monday isn’t a big surprise, having been signalled before and in its initial fast-track notice tabled in Congress last May.
There’s a lot about modernizing NAFTA, improving the agreement to add provisions on trade in services, digital commerce, intellectual property and even reference to establishing “strong and enforceable environmental obligations” and other things that, subject to careful reading, could be acceptable as a basis for negotiations.
However, there are at least four major bombshells, signalling an…
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland’s House of Commons speech last week signalled a new direction in Canadian foreign policy. In doing so, the Canadian government has to be sharply focused on dealing with Washington, navigating Donald Trump’s protectionist view of the world and the impending NAFTA negotiations.
Those negotiations will be challenging, once the U.S. Congress clears the administration’s fast-track approval and the Trump team presents Canada and Mexico with its demands, likely in August.
Unlike the 1980s and 1990s when the United States had strategic interests in showing the world that it could reach accommodation with its North American partners, this time we have an “America First” president with no…
It haunts us still. Softwood lumber is back, the defining Canada-U.S. trade dispute of the ages.
The preliminary duties announced Tuesday are designed to affect billions of dollars of Canadian exports. Even ahead of final duties to be announced in June, these will decimate Canadian exports and affect the livelihood of many thousands of Canadians.
Over the coming months, softwood lumber will dominate the front pages of our newspapers (though relegated to the back pages in U.S. media).
As if there wasn’t already enough tension in the bilateral relationship, softwood lumber adds even more stress, with President Donald Trump’s demand for NAFTA renegotiations (which he describes as the most “disastrous” trade agreement…
At this time of anxiety surrounding international trade relations, it was encouraging to see a new Canadian free-trade agreement arrive on the scene Friday. Unveiled by federal, provincial and territorial governments, the CFTA seeks to reduce government-imposed barriers that Canadians face when seeking economic opportunities across the country. But does it deliver? Only partly.
Our economic union, with all its flaws, remains a vital avenue of economic opportunities for Canadians. The CFTA represents a serious but incomplete attempt at removing barriers to accessing these opportunities. Canadians looking to buy and import alcoholic beverages more freely from other provinces will certainly be disappointed by the CFTA, which only…
U.S. President Donald Trump’s expansionary fiscal-policy plans and activist trade policies are on a collision course that could lead to a trade war. To avoid that war, it’s vital that U.S. tax reforms be revenue-neutral and geared at expanding the supply side of the economy.
Now is not the right time for debt-financed “stimulus.” That policy would only lead to larger trade deficits and more pressure on Mr. Trump to adopt protectionist trade policies. To provide wise counsel to our American friends and to prepare for a trade war should it erupt, Canadians must understand why Mr. Trump’s policies are on a collision course.
Mr. Trump is proposing large tax cuts, a rise in defence spending and a large infrastructure program.…
