Hundreds of workers in Montreal demonstrate for better NAFTA deal

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), now changed to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after the USA withdrew, is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Canadian negotiators have countered so-called USA poison pills with proposals for higher continental content requirements for automobiles, and on NAFTA’s dispute resolution mechanisms and contentious five-year sunset clause.

“If we pull the rug out now”, the 3rd District Republican congressman said, “that will ultimately cost taxpayers” and specifically undermine the ag economy, which enjoys huge economic benefits from exports to Canada and Mexico.

On autos, Canada is proposing that the calculation of North American content be expanded to include intellectual property and emerging technologies – which would boost US content because of American research dominance. He did not give details.

Asked his view of Trump after a year of his presidency, Smith said “he obviously has a different style with how we operate, he shakes things up a little bit”.

Mexico has been pushing a vigorous Plan B agenda, to compensate for a possible US withdrawal and is communicating that to the Trump administration, according to sources familiar with that country’s negotiating position, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of sensitivity of the talks. TD Bank says the central bank would reduce rates by as much as three-quarters of a point and the loonie, as the Canadian dollar is known, would fall as much as 5 percent against its US counterpart.

The bulk of U.S.jobs lost were in former manufacturing hubs like MI and Texas, states that went to Trump in the 2016 election.

With negotiations on a major trade agreement going on this week, one agricultural sector that is a big part of central Alberta could be a big reason talks fall apart.

The workers – mostly in the manufacturing sector – are calling for NAFTA to be improved so it better protects jobs within Canada.

I may terminate NAFTA, I may not. “There is a lot more thinking to do”, he told reporters on Thursday. Nor do the two countries support a USA demand that automobiles must have 50 percent of their content manufactured in America to avoid tariffs.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Thursday. “The support of the Canadian government continues to be very important to Canada’s dairy farmers”, she said just before NAFTA talks started on January 23.

Verheul said on Tuesday he did not see much sense in making a formal counter-proposal on autos. He has spoken of withdrawal as a possible negotiating strategy, though Mexico and Canada have vowed to abandon the talks rather than negotiate under duress.

Whether the process has any chance of wrapping up by that deadline is unclear. I think it would send shudders through the stock market.

But Lee does not forecast gloom and doom in the event of a ripped up NAFTA, as he believes Trump wants a deal, “he just wants a trade deal that is more advantageous to Americans and American workers”, he says. These include irritants over dairy, and the United States desire to eliminate the Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism, which allows industries to fight abusive punitive duties.