Canada’s takeaway from Trump meeting: ‘cautiously optimistic’

Canada’s envoy to Washington, who sat in on a Donald Trump-Justin Trudeau limit this week, says he’s now carefully confident about any stirring changes to a North American Free Trade Agreement.

Those conversations focused on changes that would be beneficial to both Canada and a United States, as they have finished for months in talks with a White House and, before that, a Trump transition team, David MacNaughton pronounced Wednesday.

If we’re going to change it, we’re going to do things that are good for both Canada and a United States. That was a suggestion of the meeting,” MacNaughton said in Toronto.

“I’m carefully optimistic. we mean, we never know in these things, though I’m utterly confident that it’s going to be good for
us.” 

The U.S. boss resolved his assembly with Trudeau with a public stipulation that a trade relationship with Canada is outstanding, suggesting he usually wants a few tweaks in an upgraded NAFTA.

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Yet MacNaughton adds one word of caution: It’s tough to know exactly what a new administration will ask for, since a Trump cabinet has nonetheless to have a commerce and trade secretaries confirmed by Congress.

The acknowledgment routine has been hold adult by a entrenched partisan crusade in Washington. The irregularity mounted this week amid calls for an review into connectors between Russian intelligence and a Trump campaign.

The pivotal players on a NAFTA record are also cooling their heels — Commerce collect Wilbur Ross and United States Trade Representative nominee Robert Lighthizer are both available news on their confirmation.

Canada’s envoy to a U.S. David MacNaughton (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

MacNaughton used a sports embellishment to report a one-sided nature of a stream trade conversation, between a full Canadian government and a partly staffed administration: “It’s a bit of shadowboxing right now.”

He uttered confidence in another area. He hopes there will be a beneficial fortitude to differences over supposed “Buy American” restrictions on unfamiliar companies competing for U.S. infrastructure projects; a countries released a matter after a Trudeau-Trump meeting that enclosed a deceptive anxiety to operative together on construction.

But some observers contend it’s approach too early to celebrate. 

“I consider a initial Canadian greeting on Monday was a bit too exuberant,” pronounced Toronto trade counsel Mark Warner.
“The bottom line is that it all depends on what (Trump) means by ‘tweak’… we consider it was only a placeholder. Canada wants answers faster than he can give.”

Opening Pandora’s Box

If Trump wants poignant changes to NAFTA, he needs to go through Congress. And that routine includes a open consultation where a U.S. supervision receives submit from American companies on ideal negotiating positions.

A series of U.S. companies have already uttered gripes about Canadian trade practices. Annual U.S. supervision reports regularly list grievances associated to things like restrictions on milk, cheese and ornithology imports; controls of what wine gets sold, and where; Canada’s tighter duty-free rules; boundary on unfamiliar foe in the telecommunications and promote sector.

It’s tough for anyone — including Trump — to pre-emptively promise just teenager tweaks, Warner said. 

If NAFTA gets reopened, he said: “I consider that means opening Pandora’s Box.”

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-canada-trade-trump-trudeau-1.3984569?cmp=rss