The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that on Monday, the U.S.
Trade Representative Office
published the Trump administration's objectives for renegotiating
the North American
free-trade agreement. The Globe's guest columnist Patrick LeBlond writes that contrary to
President Donald Trump's rhetoric
about NAFTA, the
document's tone is in line with a
needed modernization of
NAFTA.
Notwithstanding some protectionist
objectives and measures, the document is
actually something Canada and
Mexico can work with. The document calls for a revised
NAFTA to be more transparent
when it comes to regulation
and other government decisions. Similarly, Canada has
already committed to transparency in the context of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership
and the Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement with the
European Union.
Moving the pact into this decade,
the document
mentions free digital trade in
goods and services and free cross-border
data flows -- an issue that
did not exist when NAFTA was
concluded 25 years ago.
The Trump administration's
willingness to reinforce NAFTA's
existing labour and environmental
provisions is certainly
good news for Ottawa's progressive
trade agenda.
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