Peter Watts: NAFTA talks will make for interesting week in Montreal

The latest round of talks on a renewed North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are underway in Montreal, and there’s an awful lot riding on the outcome. For that reason, senior politicians from Canada, the United States and Mexico are in the city, although they may not be at the negotiating table. Many others are watching from nearby and meeting among themselves to press the point that a new deal must be done.

Among them is Janet Riopel, the president and CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.

“Since last summer, our chamber has been extolling the virtues of NAFTA to more than 90 chambers across the continent,” she told me.  “Twenty-seven chambers are represented in Montreal. We want to press the point that a new deal is urgently needed. We export about $80 billion worth of goods and services to the U.S. and Mexico every year.  We can’t afford to have that flow interrupted.”

The current deal has had a 25-year existence. Everyone acknowledges the need to update it to better reflect the realities of our 21st-century world. But, as with every other aspect of life, there are different ideas of what a new comprehensive agreement should look like. There are various interest groups who think the existing treaty does not pay enough attention to their points of view. And there are some who don’t like being a part of the global village and who think that Canada would be better off on its own.

No one expects that the signing of a new deal is imminent. There are political factors at work in connection with the calendar. There are important elections to be held in Mexico and in the United States later this year. There is the consideration of what position President Donald Trump will take as the year moves along, and whether or not he will try to take his country out of the talks. Congress may have something to say about that.

Here in Canada, our negotiators are trying to protect what the deal has meant to the Canadian economy and how certain protections that were built into the original treaty must be retained.  They are also trying to deal with issues like softwood lumber and supply management, that are important to Canada and not to be treated like pawns to be sacrificed in order to get a deal done.

It promises to be an interesting week in Montreal.