By Tonda MacCharles
After more than a year of wooing bipartisan support in the United States to ensure cross-border free trade did not collapse in a wave of protectionism and “America First” rhetoric, the Canadian government says it will stand back as the American debate over the new trade pact picks up steam.
In Windsor, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she was not concerned by reports south of the border that Democrats are starting to demand changes to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, or that it could delay ratification of the deal, saying she’d done her job to ensure the new pact would have broad support in Canada.
“When it comes to the U.S. it was the job of Ambassador (Robert) Lighthizer to negotiate a deal that would be supported in his country. Ambassador Lighthizer is a professional and I leave to him the U.S. political process and the U.S. ratification process,” Freeland told reporters.
“Indeed, I think it would be really presumptuous for me or the government of Canada to presume that we can get involved in the U.S. ratification process in the same way that I think we would consider it presumptuous for the U.S. to get involved in our own ratification process.”
Right now, the USMCA is an agreement-in-principle that would, if ratified by all three countries, replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. The White House had hoped Mexico would ratify before a newly elected Mexican administration is sworn in on Dec. 1. However American lawmakers have said the deal would not be ratified in the U.S. until 2019. Meanwhile, the traditionally protectionist Democrat party has won control of the House of Representatives.
Freeland’s determination to stand aside while Democrats and Republicans try to settle any differences on trade stands in contrast to the all-out year-long “Team Canada” effort the federal Liberal government co-ordinated among premiers and others to shore up American support for free trade at national, state and district levels.
Read more:
Opinion | Jennifer Wells: Labour issues may hand Democrats the key to fighting USMCA
Canada hoping to solve U.S. tariff dispute by G20 meetings at month’s end, Trudeau says
Trump’s NAFTA plan could be upended by Democrats’ House takeover
But Freeland was quick to remind Canadians that “while each country goes through its ratification process … the current NAFTA is in place.”
That agreement remains the legal framework that governs $2 billion worth of trade that flows between the United States and Canada every day.
Some have called on the Canadian government to continue a full-court press, especially with a whole new crop of lawmakers elected last week to the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democrats have gained control of the chamber where money bills, such as trade ratification or implementation legislation, originate.
Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc