EDITORIAL: NAFTA 2.0 gives needed stability
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It’s important to remember how NAFTA negotiations began in the first place. U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to tear it up.
Bye-bye, so long and say hello to confusion and, at least initially, trucks backed up at the border.
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A tear up would have caused a massive headache for Canadian trade, until a new deal was later eked out.
In this respect, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and the Liberal government get to take a bow for navigating these choppy waters for the past three years and bringing us back to harbour relatively unharmed.
On Tuesday, Freeland sat down with her American and Mexican counterparts to sign off on a revised version of NAFTA 2.0, officially known as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
It still has to be ratified in U.S. Congress, and that vote isn’t expected until they’re done with the current impeachment saga.
The fact we’re nearing the finish line though is enough for industry in Canada to breathe a sigh of relief.
Business craves stability. To have this matter remain uncertain and up in the air for so long has not been good. Decisions about where to invest and hire and build new facilities will have been put on hold by some companies awaiting the outcomes of these talks. There is no doubt been a few missed opportunities along the way.
The sooner this document is formalized and implemented, the better.
A number of top experts have noted that NAFTA was an old document and nothing lasts forever. In many ways, it was inevitable the trade agreement would get a facelift sooner or later. Trump was just the disruptive force that brought that into action.
There were times when Freeland herself rocked the boat, like how she frustrated Trump by participating in a roundtable discussion that likened the President to a dictator. Antics like this and Trudeau doing his ‘mean girls’ laugh at the recent NATO event need to be avoided.
The Liberals still deserve credit for participating in a modernization of this all-important deal. The U.S. is our number one trading partner and Mexico is our third. These relationships matter and are hopefully now improved.
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