NAFTA: Montreal public forum

NAFTA: Montreal public forum

Postby Oscar » Fri May 12, 2017 8:54 pm

Montreal chapter hosts public forum on NAFTA on eve of Lighthizer's confirmation as USTR

[ https://canadians.org/blog/montreal-cha ... ation-ustr ]

May 11, 2017 - 10:29 pm

The Council of Canadians Montreal chapter hosted a bilingual public forum last night with Claude Vaillancourt speaking about the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Their promotion highlighted, "Vaillancourt is the president of ATTAC Québec, an organization that fights against corporate trade agreements, tax havens, austerity, and other forms of social injustice. He is a prolific author of many books including L'Économie Toxique and L'Empire du Libre Échange. He will be speaking about how so-called international free trade agreements, especially NAFTA, impact our daily lives."

The next day Bloomberg reported, "The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick as top trade negotiator, clearing the way for the administration to reset relations starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a 82-14 vote, the Senate approved Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative on Thursday."

The article adds, "One of Lighthizer’s first orders of business will be to consult Congress on the administration’s plans to renegotiate NAFTA. His confirmation clears a hurdle before the U.S. can start 90 days of consultations preceding NAFTA talks." That arguably means that the renegotiation of NAFTA could begin in mid-August.

What might Lighthizer seek? This past March a draft eight page letter to Congress from the acting US Trade Representative was leaked to the media. Among the 40 U.S. negotiating objectives listed in that letter from the USTR were:

1- elimination of the Chapter 19 state-to-state dispute settlement provision
2- an end to non-tariff barriers in agriculture (supply management)
3- a border adjustment tax on foreign imports from Canada and Mexico
4- increased duties on imports unless they contain a higher level of U.S. content
5- a preferential 'Buy American' policy for government purchases
6- an ability to 'safeguard' against a flood of Canadian or Mexican imports

Who will Canada send to face Lighthizer? It was reported today that Steve Verheul, Canada's chief negotiator for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), is likely to be named the Trudeau government's chief negotiator in the upcoming NAFTA talks.

The Council of Canadians has called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - and soon Verheul - to have their own list of demands including:

1- removing water as a tradable good, service and investment in the deal
2- ending the energy proportionality provision
3- eliminating the Chapter 11 investor-state dispute settlement provision

Furthermore, Scott Sinclair from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently argued, "It is not too early to be considering an exit strategy. If NAFTA were to come apart, perhaps through an executive order from Trump if Canada or Mexico balks at U.S. demands, WTO bound tariff rates would then apply. This would be disruptive, but not catastrophic. ...If an 'America First' NAFTA would be worse for Canada than the multilateral alternative, we can and should walk away from the table."

News reports suggest that while the NAFTA renegotiation are likely begin in August-September, the talks would need to be concluded by next April, given the July 1, 2018 general election in Mexico.

Montreal-based Council of Canadians trade campaigner Sujata Dey along with two members of our Northumberland chapter, Rick Arnold and Bev Burke, will be attending the 'Trinational Meeting of Social Movements from Canada, Mexico and the United States on NAFTA' this coming May 26-27 in Mexico City.

The promotion for this encuentro highlights, "This gathering gives us all an opportunity to strategize around actions needed to build collective power based on the principles of solidarity and internationalism while sharing alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal agenda." Vaillancourt's organization ATTAC Québec is also a partner in the planning of this meeting.

The Council of Canadians will also soon be releasing fact sheets and handimation videos on NAFTA, as well as launching a lobbying campaign on June 26 directed at Members of Parliament.

To call on the Trudeau government to remove Chapter 11, energy proportionality and water from NAFTA, please click on this online action alert:
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=69032 ]


Tags: chapters
[ https://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]


Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
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Oscar
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