NAFTA: NAFTA’s dirty secret: it lets U.S. control our oil:

[Oscar]

NAFTA’s dirty secret: it lets U.S. control our oil: McQuaig

[ https://www.thestar.com/opinion/comment ... quaig.html ]

Mexico’s fierce defence of its sovereignty stands in sharp contrast to the easy submission to Washington’s energy demands by Canadian politicians, led by then Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

"If there were a global oil shortage — like the ones in the 1970s — we couldn’t cut back our oil exports to the U.S. in order to redirect the oil to Canadians," writes Linda McQuaig of little known provision Canada's free trade agreement with the U.S.

By Linda McQuaig Columnist Thu., June 8, 2017

In the wake of Donald Trump’s fiery threats to end the trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the subject of NAFTA has become much more interesting to Canadians than before, when it mostly consisted of talk about softwood lumber and the dairy industry. Boring.

In fact, Trump or no Trump, NAFTA has always been a potential firecracker of an issue, if only the public knew what was in the deal.

But for more than 20 years, Canadian politicians have largely managed to keep the focus on lumber and cows, distracting us from the truly outrageous aspects of NAFTA: the surrender of Canadian sovereignty in a couple of key areas.

Now that Trump is forcing us to renegotiate NAFTA, there’s lots of talk here about how Canada must be tough, and even demand some changes we want. A big spread in the Globe and Mail last week identified two — and only two — “contentious issues” for Canada: lumber and cows.

That short list, with all due respect, strikes me as a steamy pile of covfefe.

Left out, as usual, is the notion we should be trying to renegotiate sections of the deal that erode our sovereignty.

One of those sections, the investor-state clause, which gives corporations the power to sue governments over laws threatening their profits, has received some attention, although less than it deserves.

But there’s been virtually no attention to another section, Article 605, which effectively relinquishes control over our energy resources to Washington.

Article 605 was considered such an extreme infringement of national sovereignty that Mexico refused to accept it. Instead, Mexico demanded and was granted an exemption to that clause when it joined NAFTA in 1994.

Let’s shine a little light then on this mostly darkened corner of NAFTA: Article 605 limits the power of governments to cut back energy exports. So, for instance, Canada must continue to make available to Americans the same proportion of our energy as in the previous three years.

MORE:

[ https://www.thestar.com/opinion/comment ... quaig.html ]