[C]anada and the United States are set to resume negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement this week with President Donald Trump warning Congress to stay out of the process or see the agreement scrapped altogether.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, tweeted on Saturday that he would not support any deal that does not include Canada, Vermont’s largest trading partner.
“Our economies are intertwined in Vermont and across the U.S. There would be grave concerns on both sides of the aisle about proceeding with an incomplete agreement,” the senator wrote.
I cannot support a trade agreement to replace NAFTA that does not include Canada, Vermont’s biggest trade partner. Our economies are intertwined in Vermont and across the U.S. There would be grave concerns on both sides of the aisle about proceeding with an incomplete agreement.
— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) August 31, 2018
Trump said Thursday that he will not offer Canada any concessions in trade negotiations, but did not want to say that publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”
The president claimed those comments to Bloomberg News were meant to be off the record, but on Saturday tweeted that he would end NAFTA if Canada did not agree to his terms.
“If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off,” he wrote.
There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere w/ these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2018
The White House had set an initial deadline of Friday for a preliminary deal with Canada in order to move forward in an attempt to sign a new agreement with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto before he leaves office in December. However Trump’s comments appeared to derail efforts at deal within that time frame.
The White House informed Congress Friday that it intends sign a new NAFTA deal, with or without Canada, within 90 days, the required period for congressional review. Congress has the authority to approve trade deals.
One of the key issues dividing the US and Canada is agriculture policy, and particularly US demands over Canada’s dairy market.
Last year, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., joined a bipartisan group of House members to send a letter to President Trump advocating for “swift action to ensure Canada upholds dairy trade agreements.”
The letter detailed Canadian trade practices that “may violate Canada’s existing trade commitments to the United States by effectively discouraging U.S. dairy exports to Canada” and stressed that “districts and states rely on the jobs the dairy industry provides and cannot afford further protectionist policies from our northern neighbor.”
In April 2017, President Trump tweeted that Canada “has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult.”
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, who spent the week in Washington D.C. negotiating with White House officials, tweeted on Friday that Canada is “making progress” in its talks to “modernize NAFTA, but we are not there yet.”
Freeland added that a “win-win-win agreement is within reach.”
We are making progress in our talks to update and modernize #NAFTA, but we are not there yet. Our focus remains squarely on ?? workers, families and business. We know that a win-win-win agreement is within reach. We will resume talks next week.
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) August 31, 2018
