The Council of Canadians calls for transparency in NAFTA ren

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The Council of Canadians calls for transparency in NAFTA renegotiation process

[ http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/brent-p ... ation-proc ]

By Brent Patterson | November 11, 2016

The Trudeau government has signalled to the incoming Trump administration that it’s willing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Canada's ambassador to the United States says the Liberal government would be 'happy' to renegotiate NAFTA with president-elect Donald Trump's team,” the CBC reported.

“Obviously any trade deal can be improved, and to the degree that the president-elect of the United States wants to see improvements to NAFTA, we'd be happy to sit down and talk,” Ambassador David MacNaughton told CBC News Network's Power & Politics. “We've got some things I think we'd like to see, and happy to have that discussion with him when he settles in.”

Those "things" could be renegotiated. The Liberal government is not revealing to the public what those “things” are yet.

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The Council of Canadians has long called for the renegotiation of NAFTA. This past June, an Angus Reid Institute poll found that only one in four Canadians support the deal, with more than one-third wanting it renegotiated.

With that in mind, we are calling for an open, transparent and democratic process, not another secretly negotiated deal. Public hearings should be held. There should also be consultations with First Nations and Indigenous peoples.

We call on the Liberal government to be open and honest about the NAFTA renegotiation process and immediately disclose what its seeking with the Trump administration.

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Brent Patterson is the Political Director at the Council of Canadians. He works with the Council's chairperson Maude Barlow, its campaigners, organizers and chapters across the country on trade, energy, water, and health care issues. The Council has political staff in Ottawa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, Delhi, Cape Town and Mexico City. You can follow Brent on Twitter @CBrentPatterson.