David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
For the benefit of all before the Yankee Mid Term Election please check out my idea of an "October Surprise" for Trump Hopefully "The Donald" becomes the biggest Lame Duck in the history of the WORLD N'esy Pas?
https://www.scribd.com/document/390015253/My-Oct-1st-Response-to-NAFTA-2-0-See-Statement-33-of-a-48-16-Submission
Description:
I waited until the last possible minute in a sincere to try to make Trudeau the Younger and his mindless minions that I was not joking about my offer of assistance against Trump and NAFTA. In return the LIEbranos and the Conservative cohorts just lauged at me. Well now a little proof of what I say is true it was duly recorded forever in the PUBLIC RECORD of the Federal Court files in Fredericton NB before the ink was dry in Ottawa and Washington. Trust that I will be on the phone and emailing this document to many Yankees as my idea of an "October Surprise" for Mr Trump and his evil cronies to enjoy before the Mid Term election and hopefully for the benefit of all "The Donald" becomes the biggest lame duck in the history of the USA. David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
(Check Don Brown's Most Liked comment) Methinks many politicians are
familiar with this story that appeared in the Kings County Record June
22, 2004 N'esy Pas?
http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/10/canada-surrenders-sovereignty-to-bully.html
http://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2018/10/canada-surrenders-sovereignty-to-bully.html
#TrudeauMustGo #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrumpKnew #muellerinvestigation
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/canada-usmca-1.4845494
With its new trade deal, Canada surrenders sovereignty to a bully: Neil Macdonald
We're obliged to inform the U.S. of any intention to pursue negotiations with a "non-market" country
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
Commenting is now closed for this story.
Don Brown
Boycott USA , they cant stop that . Dont cross the line to save a few bucks .
Richard O'Mara
@Don Brown It's mainly not the money .... but the availability and selection
Don Brown
@Richard O'Mara - People are a wasteful , how many choices do you need ?
Richard Riel
@Don Brown Choice and quality.
Edward Peter
@Richard Riel
16 varieties of Cheddar cheese is worth the trip alone/s
16 varieties of Cheddar cheese is worth the trip alone/s
Bob Smith
@Don Brown I'm down there every weekend and proud of it. Want me to shop Canadian, don't f me in taxes.
Terry Smith
@Don Brown
Spoken like a true communist
Spoken like a true communist
Don Brown
@Terry Smith - Spoken like a Trump schill
Claire Bensen
@Edward Peter
Psst... we have cheese shops in Canada too
Psst... we have cheese shops in Canada too
David Amos
@Don Brown Methinks many
politicians are familiar with this story that appeared in the Kings
County Record June 22, 2004 N'esy Pas?
The Unconventional Candidate
By Gisele McKnight
"FUNDY—He has a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket, a chain on his wallet, a beard at least a foot long, 60 motorcycles and a cell phone that rings to the tune of "Yankee Doodle."
Meet the latest addition to the Fundy ballot—David Amos. The independent candidate lives in Milton, Massachusetts with his wife and two children, but his place of residence does not stop him from running for office in Canada."
"Amos, 52, is running for political office because of his dissatisfaction with politicians. "I've become aware of much corruption involving our two countries," he said. "The only way to fix corruption is in the political forum."
"What he's fighting for is the discussion of issues – tainted blood, the exploitation of the Maritimes' gas and oil reserves and NAFTA, to name a few.
"The political issues in the Maritimes involve the three Fs – fishing, farming and forestry, but they forget foreign issues," he said. "I'm death on NAFTA, the back room deals and free trade. I say chuck it (NAFTA) out the window
NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement which allows an easier flow of goods between Canada, the United States and Mexico."
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Its crying time again
#TrudeauMustGo #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrumpKnew #muellerinvestigation
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-1-2018-1.4845176/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-canadian-dairy-farmer-disappointed-by-usmca-deal-1.4845281
'Death by a thousand cuts': Canadian dairy farmer disappointed by USMCA deal
Deal will affect the livelihood of farmers and their families, says B.C. farmer
249 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.
Teddy Clifton
""Justin Trudeau promised
over and over again " this once again demonstrates his consistency of
promising . The list of broken or unkept promises is getting very long.
David Amos
@Teddy Clifton Perhaps someday the Dairy Farmers will pay attention to what I have been saying about NAFTA etc since 2004
Nathanial Nasci
@Teddy Clifton He promised to keep Supply Management and he has.
1 litre of milk in
Newfoundland, my home province, is almost $3. 1 litre in Boise, Idaho,
where I live now, is less than 90 cents. The difference is the price
many Canadians pay to indirectly subsidize Canadian dairy producers. Of
course it is also not fair that the US directly subsidizes farm
production but this new deal does not address US farm subsidies.
Barney Miller
@
US farm subsidies can easily be addressed with WTO legal action.....but I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen.....Trudeau can't even find the time to fill the empty court benches in Canada....and our "new" Trade Minister, Jimmy Carr thinks that "affection" for Canada, is the basis for trade negotiation....LOL....these Liberal clowns don't know what, when or how to react.
US farm subsidies can easily be addressed with WTO legal action.....but I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen.....Trudeau can't even find the time to fill the empty court benches in Canada....and our "new" Trade Minister, Jimmy Carr thinks that "affection" for Canada, is the basis for trade negotiation....LOL....these Liberal clowns don't know what, when or how to react.
Barney Miller
@
US farm subsidies can easily be addressed with WTO legal action.....but I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen.....Trudeau can't even find the time to fill the empty court benches in Canada....and our "new" Trade Minister, Jimmy Carr thinks that "affection" for Canada, is the basis for trade negotiation....LOL....these Liberals don't know what, when or how to react.
US farm subsidies can easily be addressed with WTO legal action.....but I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen.....Trudeau can't even find the time to fill the empty court benches in Canada....and our "new" Trade Minister, Jimmy Carr thinks that "affection" for Canada, is the basis for trade negotiation....LOL....these Liberals don't know what, when or how to react.
David Amos
@Barney Miller Methinks you are a little redundant but perhaps some liberal will get your message N'esy Pas?
Howard Larade
@ We pay 3.57 for 2L of milk in Stephenville NL so not sure where you are to pay $3.00 for 1L.
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Methinks many people were correct about Trudeau The Younger knuckling
under to Trump I bet a herd of Dairy Farmers are gonna be plenty pissed
off N'esy Pas?
#TrudeauMustGo #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrumpKnew #muellerinvestigation https://globalnews.ca/news/4500068/nafta-2018-agreement-finalized/
NAFTA deal reached: Canada, U.S., Mexico reach trade agreement under new name
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Methinks many people believe that Trudeau The Younger is about to knuckle under to Trump N'esy Pas?
#TrudeauMustGo #nbpoli #cdnpoli #TrumpKnew #muellerinvestigation
Survey Says?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-finale-sunday-deadline-trump-1.4844623
Canada, U.S. have reached a NAFTA deal — now called the USMCA
Trudeau says it's 'a good day for Canada,' but does not elaborate
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/canada-usmca-1.4845494
With its new trade deal, Canada surrenders sovereignty to a bully: Neil Macdonald
We're obliged to inform the U.S. of any intention to pursue negotiations with a "non-market" country
So first, Clause 32. It's long-winded and uses code language, but basically, it says
that if Canada wants a trade deal with China, it has to notify the
Americans about any negotiations, and tell them the substance of those
negotiations, and submit the text of any deal, "including any annexes
and side instruments" in advance, for American scrutiny, and then, like a
puppy, await Washington's verdict.
If the Americans don't like the deal – and it's a safe bet the Americans aren't going to like any deal that binds Canada to a rival economic giant – Canada will be summarily excluded from the new version of NAFTA, which will revert, at America's whim, to a bilateral deal with Mexico.
It's a breathtaking thing for Canada to accept, but unsurprising. It's of a piece with the Trump approach: brutalize allies and partners, insult them and club them into submission with crude threats like Trump's "motherlode" tariffs on autos and auto parts.
To paraphrase Trump's coarse inauguration speech, fair trade stops here and it stops now. America first, ladies and gentlemen.
Clause 32 doesn't actually mention China. It instead uses the euphemism "non-market country," and stipulates that each party "shall inform the other parties," but there's no doubt about what a non-market country means — China — or who Canada is meant to tell. At the moment, U.S. President Donald Trump is prosecuting an all-out trade war with China, and he doesn't want any allies getting cozy with the other side.
But it's more than that. The United States has clearly heard the voices in Canada and other Western countries urging their governments to diversify and strengthen ties with other trading partners as a shield against Trump's America-first bullying. The Americans consider Canada and Mexico to be client states, and aren't going to stand for any Canadian assertions of independence.
"This is all about the Americans laying down a marker," says a Canadian lawyer who's been inside the NAFTA renegotiation. "They are effectively saying 'We are going to control North America.'
"I cannot believe Canada would sign this. It makes me want to puke."
Gordon Ritchie, who helped negotiate the original Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, takes a more charitable view. He says Clause 32 is mostly about American fears of Chinese goods making it into their market through a Canadian back door.
Such fears are overblown, he says, but Canada probably went along because "shielding your head means the blows will fall on your back."
But Canada in the end probably didn't have much choice. When your economy is so stitched to a power the size of America, you eventually do as you're told. You sign a deal like this one, even if it doesn't protect you from Trump's illegal "232" maneuver – declaring that Canadian aluminium and steel constitute a threat to American national security, and therefore must be tariffed.
The idea that Canadian metal threatens American security is lunacy. The fact that Trump, with a smug smile, is actually citing it, and gets to continue to cite it at will, says all that needs to be said about his regard for the "closest of friends" relationship we've been told about all our lives. To Trump, Canada is a bothersome vassal that needs to learn its place in an American-led world.
When
your economy is so stitched to a power the size of America, you
eventually do as you're told. You sign a deal like this one, even if it
doesn't protect you from Trump's illegal "232" maneuver. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
That said, Canada did manage to keep some of its high protectionist walls from destruction by the American trebuchet.
Our government-managed cartel that protects Canadian farmers from competition by forcing Canadians to pay higher than market prices for dairy, poultry and eggs remains largely intact.
And Ottawa, pushed by the association representing Canadian retailers, has seen to it that cross-border e-commerce will remain mostly out of reach for millions of Canadian consumers.
On the face of it, the so-called de minimis level – the threshold under which any shipment from abroad comes into Canada without duty or taxes applied – is rising. Canada has for more than 30 years stopped any incoming parcel worth more than a trifling $20 Canadian, and applied duties and taxes.
That number is going to change.
But anyone who thinks it will be easier and cheaper to order that nicely priced shirt from Land's End is in for a Canadian surprise. (Actually, no one should be surprised at all, given the extent to which Canada relies on protectionism, rather than competition, to rule its markets).
Look at the numbers. The new trade deal declares that all shipments under $150 will be allowed into Canada duty-free. Great so far.
But in reality, peanuts. The average duty on goods coming in from the United States is 2 per cent. Meaning Canada has agreed to forgo $3 on a shipment of $150.
Meanwhile, Canada will continue to collect 12.25 per cent HST on any shipment valued at more than $40. Meaning $18.40 on that $150 shipment.
And the way it will work means that, in effect, the Canadian border will remain discouragingly sclerotic. Big American shippers, which don't have the time or inclination to start collecting Canadian taxes on behalf of the Canadian government, generally just hand parcels over to a courier like UPS or FedEx.
Those couriers automatically engage customs brokers to smooth the passage of goods across the border. The brokers calculate tax and duty, impose it on the price, then add their own hefty fees, often doubling the cost to the consumer of a small purchase, which makes the exercise rather pointless, which is exactly the way Canadian retailers, and the government, want it.
In effect, the Canadian border will remain discouragingly sclerotic. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)
Smaller
shippers, though, generally use the post office, and Canada Post, to
the extreme annoyance of the federal government and Canada's retail
industry, does not hire parasitic customs brokers; it merely offers
parcels to Canadian customs agents for inspection, and the Canada Border
Services agency doesn't have the staff to handle the job. Which is why
postal shipments often arrive at Canadians' homes without any fees,
duties or taxes applied. People in the e-commerce game call that "duty
roulette."
Tellingly, Canada's department of finance immediately confirmed that the new de minimis applies only to shipments by private courier, not to any parcel sent by mail. Think about that: Canada's new rules don't apply to its own post office.
Andrea Stairs, CEO of eBay Canada, says 90 per cent of her small shippers do ship via the post. Overall, she says, 70 per cent of cross-border shipments are postal packages. Which means the new rules exclude the vast majority of shipments. Of course they do.
Stairs is not celebrating today. All the new deal does, she says "is make things even more confusing for Canadian consumers, let alone small businesses trying to work in a global economy." If postal shipments are excluded from the new deal, she says, the whole thing is just "a missed opportunity."
Consumers will henceforth have to calculate what percentage of their purchase will be taxed, what percentage will be duty-free, and whether it makes more sense to ask for postal shipping, and hope the package sails past customs uninspected.
"We're pretty comfortable with where it ended up," Karl Littler of the Retail Council of Canada told Bloomberg News.
Pretty comfortable indeed. Because nothing will change.
Ottawa's calculus, in the end, was pretty obvious. Surrender to American bludgeoning on the big-picture stuff, and hang on if possible to barriers and protections that force Canadian consumers to pay for our lack of competitiveness.
Because that's the way Canada rolls.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
If the Americans don't like the deal – and it's a safe bet the Americans aren't going to like any deal that binds Canada to a rival economic giant – Canada will be summarily excluded from the new version of NAFTA, which will revert, at America's whim, to a bilateral deal with Mexico.
It's a breathtaking thing for Canada to accept, but unsurprising. It's of a piece with the Trump approach: brutalize allies and partners, insult them and club them into submission with crude threats like Trump's "motherlode" tariffs on autos and auto parts.
To paraphrase Trump's coarse inauguration speech, fair trade stops here and it stops now. America first, ladies and gentlemen.
Trade with "non-market" countries
Clause 32 doesn't actually mention China. It instead uses the euphemism "non-market country," and stipulates that each party "shall inform the other parties," but there's no doubt about what a non-market country means — China — or who Canada is meant to tell. At the moment, U.S. President Donald Trump is prosecuting an all-out trade war with China, and he doesn't want any allies getting cozy with the other side.
But it's more than that. The United States has clearly heard the voices in Canada and other Western countries urging their governments to diversify and strengthen ties with other trading partners as a shield against Trump's America-first bullying. The Americans consider Canada and Mexico to be client states, and aren't going to stand for any Canadian assertions of independence.
"This is all about the Americans laying down a marker," says a Canadian lawyer who's been inside the NAFTA renegotiation. "They are effectively saying 'We are going to control North America.'
"I cannot believe Canada would sign this. It makes me want to puke."
Gordon Ritchie, who helped negotiate the original Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, takes a more charitable view. He says Clause 32 is mostly about American fears of Chinese goods making it into their market through a Canadian back door.
Such fears are overblown, he says, but Canada probably went along because "shielding your head means the blows will fall on your back."
- What we know about the new USMCA trade deal
- Trump, Trudeau praise USMCA trade deal they say will 'grow middle class'
But Canada in the end probably didn't have much choice. When your economy is so stitched to a power the size of America, you eventually do as you're told. You sign a deal like this one, even if it doesn't protect you from Trump's illegal "232" maneuver – declaring that Canadian aluminium and steel constitute a threat to American national security, and therefore must be tariffed.
The idea that Canadian metal threatens American security is lunacy. The fact that Trump, with a smug smile, is actually citing it, and gets to continue to cite it at will, says all that needs to be said about his regard for the "closest of friends" relationship we've been told about all our lives. To Trump, Canada is a bothersome vassal that needs to learn its place in an American-led world.
Our government-managed cartel that protects Canadian farmers from competition by forcing Canadians to pay higher than market prices for dairy, poultry and eggs remains largely intact.
And Ottawa, pushed by the association representing Canadian retailers, has seen to it that cross-border e-commerce will remain mostly out of reach for millions of Canadian consumers.
On the face of it, the so-called de minimis level – the threshold under which any shipment from abroad comes into Canada without duty or taxes applied – is rising. Canada has for more than 30 years stopped any incoming parcel worth more than a trifling $20 Canadian, and applied duties and taxes.
That number is going to change.
But anyone who thinks it will be easier and cheaper to order that nicely priced shirt from Land's End is in for a Canadian surprise. (Actually, no one should be surprised at all, given the extent to which Canada relies on protectionism, rather than competition, to rule its markets).
Fees behind the numbers
Look at the numbers. The new trade deal declares that all shipments under $150 will be allowed into Canada duty-free. Great so far.
But in reality, peanuts. The average duty on goods coming in from the United States is 2 per cent. Meaning Canada has agreed to forgo $3 on a shipment of $150.
Meanwhile, Canada will continue to collect 12.25 per cent HST on any shipment valued at more than $40. Meaning $18.40 on that $150 shipment.
And the way it will work means that, in effect, the Canadian border will remain discouragingly sclerotic. Big American shippers, which don't have the time or inclination to start collecting Canadian taxes on behalf of the Canadian government, generally just hand parcels over to a courier like UPS or FedEx.
Those couriers automatically engage customs brokers to smooth the passage of goods across the border. The brokers calculate tax and duty, impose it on the price, then add their own hefty fees, often doubling the cost to the consumer of a small purchase, which makes the exercise rather pointless, which is exactly the way Canadian retailers, and the government, want it.
Tellingly, Canada's department of finance immediately confirmed that the new de minimis applies only to shipments by private courier, not to any parcel sent by mail. Think about that: Canada's new rules don't apply to its own post office.
Andrea Stairs, CEO of eBay Canada, says 90 per cent of her small shippers do ship via the post. Overall, she says, 70 per cent of cross-border shipments are postal packages. Which means the new rules exclude the vast majority of shipments. Of course they do.
Stairs is not celebrating today. All the new deal does, she says "is make things even more confusing for Canadian consumers, let alone small businesses trying to work in a global economy." If postal shipments are excluded from the new deal, she says, the whole thing is just "a missed opportunity."
Consumers will henceforth have to calculate what percentage of their purchase will be taxed, what percentage will be duty-free, and whether it makes more sense to ask for postal shipping, and hope the package sails past customs uninspected.
"We're pretty comfortable with where it ended up," Karl Littler of the Retail Council of Canada told Bloomberg News.
Pretty comfortable indeed. Because nothing will change.
Ottawa's calculus, in the end, was pretty obvious. Surrender to American bludgeoning on the big-picture stuff, and hang on if possible to barriers and protections that force Canadian consumers to pay for our lack of competitiveness.
Because that's the way Canada rolls.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.
About the Author
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-1-2018-1.4845176/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-canadian-dairy-farmer-disappointed-by-usmca-deal-1.4845281
'Death by a thousand cuts': Canadian dairy farmer disappointed by USMCA deal
Deal will affect the livelihood of farmers and their families, says B.C. farmer
B.C. dairy farmer is disappointed by "excessive" dairy concessions Canada has made in the new North American trade deal.
"It feels like a death by a thousand cuts," said Julaine Treur, who owns Creekside Dairy with her husband Jochem, in Agassiz, B.C.
"Justin Trudeau promised over and over again to defend supply management, but I don't feel like this is defending us, this is eroding the stability of our supply managed system," she told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
That erosion has come from deals in recent years, she argued, such as the CETA agreement between Canada and the EU, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership between Canada and 10 Asian countries.
The TPP was supposed to be the last deal ... and then Trump came along.- Julaine TreurThe new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would give American farmers greater market access to sell their goods in Canada — worth about 3.6 per cent of the current dairy industry, according to the Dairy Farmers of Canada.
"The TPP was supposed to be the last deal," Treur said. "The government told us then we had deals with all of our major trading partners, and we could rest easy for a while — and then [U.S. President Donald] Trump came along."
"This access is frustrating to us, because every time we're being asked to give and give and give."
Canada's supply management system puts quotas on the amount of milk that farmers are allowed to produce, eliminating over-production, which can drive down prices. It also puts high tariffs on foreign producers trying to sell in the Canadian market, limiting foreign products on Canadian shelves.
The National
Supply management: The argument for and against, and why Trump hates it
The National takes a
brief look at supply management, the argument for and against it, and
why U.S. President Donald Trump hates it and complains about Canada's
system. 1:11
"So it affects our Canadian jobs and the livelihood of our farmers and their families."
"It's going to cause us to tighten our belts, and sometimes it feels like we don't know how much we can tighten them."
Listen to the full conversation near the top of this page.
Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by The Current's Idella Sturino and Zena Olijnyk.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4500068/nafta-2018-agreement-finalized/
NAFTA deal reached: Canada, U.S., Mexico reach trade agreement under new name
After more than a year of negotiating a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have finally inked a trade deal.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released a joint statement Sunday night announcing the new deal, which will be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“Today, Canada and the United States reached an agreement, alongside Mexico, on a new, modernized trade agreement for the 21st Century: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA),” the statement read.
READ MORE: Read the full text of the new United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement
“USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is to sign the $1.2-trillion trade agreement at the end of November and will then submit it to Congress, an official said.
Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many......
The deal came down to the wire before a midnight deadline Sunday set by U.S. Congress, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convening a cabinet meeting at 10 p.m. ET Sunday in Ottawa.
“It’s a good day for Canada,” Trudeau told reporters after the cabinet meeting to discuss the deal, which triggered a jump in global financial markets.
The NAFTA negotiations have been in the works since Aug. 16, 2017. The goal was to “modernize” the trade pact, with U.S., Mexican and Canadian. Officials initially expected to conclude negotiations in early 2018 due to elections later in the year.
Senior White House officials said the deal is a big win for Mexico and Canada, and the deal includes ambitious new market access, including increased U.S. access to the dairy market in Canada. The officials said that a new regime has been agreed upon that will prevent supply management from being externalized outside of Canada.
Canada has agreed to provide U.S. dairy farmers access to about 3.5 per cent of its approximately $16-billion annual domestic dairy market. Although Canadian sources said its government was prepared to offer compensation, dairy farmers reacted angrily.
The Dairy Farmers of Canada said the new trade agreement will grant greater market access to the domestic dairy market and eliminate competitive dairy classes, which the group said will shrink the Canadian industry.
The lobby group said the measures will have “a dramatic impact not only for dairy farmers but for the whole sector,” adding that it fails “to see how this deal can be good for the 220,000 Canadian families that depend on dairy for their livelihood.”
Chapter 19, the dispute resolution mechanism, which was a major sticking point in the negotiations, will be kept with no substantial changes.
The deal also requires a higher proportion of the parts in a car to be made in areas of North America paying workers at least $16 an hour, a rule aimed at shifting jobs from Mexico.
Canada and Mexico each agreed to a quota of 2.6 million passenger vehicles exported to the United States in the event that Trump imposes 25 per cent global autos tariffs on national security grounds.
The quota would allow for significant growth in tariff-free automotive exports from Canada above current production levels of about two million units, safeguarding Canadian plants. It is also well above the 1.8 million cars and SUVs Mexico sent north last year.
But the deal failed to resolve U.S. tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum exports.
A review of the deal will come up every six years, officials said.
–With files from Reuters and Eric Stober
© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nafta-finale-sunday-deadline-trump-1.4844623
Canada, U.S. have reached a NAFTA deal — now called the USMCA
Trudeau says it's 'a good day for Canada,' but does not elaborate
Canada and the U.S. have announced a tentative new trilateral trade deal with Mexico that includes some key concessions on issues of import to both countries — and also a reworked name: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
"USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region," Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a joint statement released late Sunday.
After 14 months of intensive and often fractious negotiations between the two countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened a late-night meeting of cabinet to brief ministers because a deal had been reached only hours before a U.S.-imposed midnight deadline.
'A good day for Canada'
Leaving the meeting about an hour and 15 minutes after it began, Trudeau said only that it was "a good day for Canada" and that he'd have more to say to reporters on Monday.
In a background briefing with reporters, a senior Trump administration official heralded the USMCA as a win for all three countries.
"This is a big win for the U.S., Mexico and for Canada and it fulfils one of the president's most important campaign promises," a senior Trump administration official said. "We think this is a fantastic agreement. It's a great win for the president and a validation of his strategy in the area of international trade."
At the heart of the deal is a trade-off between greater U.S. access to Canada's dairy market, which is heavily protected by a system of supply management, and Canadian demands for the maintenance of a dispute resolution process.
The two sides have agreed to keep Chapter 19, NAFTA's dispute resolution mechanism, intact. That's a major victory for Canadian negotiators who have long sought to keep some sort of process to challenge anti-dumping and countervailing-duty cases — which Canada has deployed in the past over the softwood lumber file.
Chapter 19 preserved word for word
Chapter 19 will be preserved word for word, though it will be renumbered in the new agreement, U.S. officials said Sunday.
Lighthizer has steadfastly opposed this chapter, as he believes it's a violation of U.S. sovereignty to have a multinational panel of arbiters decide on the acceptability of U.S. tariffs.
A Trump administration official deflected Sunday when asked if preserving Chapter 19 was a win for Canada. "From our perspective we think there's really, really great things in this agreement. We're excited about those parts of it," the official said.
(Chapter 11, however, will be phased out between the U.S. and Canada, Trump officials said. This chapter, which outlines the investor-state dispute settlement, allowed corporations to sue governments at special tribunals for interfering in their business.)
In exchange for some U.S. concessions on a dispute mechanism, Canada is expected to give U.S. farmers greater access to Canada's dairy market by increasing the quota on foreign imports.
Under the current supply management system, Canada imposes tariffs on dairy imports — which can run as high as 300 per cent — that exceed the established quota. Trump has railed against these tariffs as unfair to American farmers, as they are designed to keep foreign products out while privileging Canadian sources.
Dairy concessions could be politically challenging
Some of what Canada has agreed to could be politically challenging for the Liberal government, especially in Quebec, where dairy farmers hold electoral sway in certain ridings.
Under the new NAFTA, the U.S. will have roughly the same access to the Canadian dairy market as what was given up by Trudeau when he signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trade deal with 10 Asia-Pacific countries earlier this year.
"We've achieved levels of market access, from the perspective of the U.S., that are a better deal than what the prior administration negotiated in TPP," a Trump administration official said of what former U.S. president Barack Obama squeezed out of the Canadians on the dairy front.
Trump officials say dairy changes major breakthrough
But, perhaps most importantly for dairy producers, Canada has agreed to end what's called class 7 pricing, a milk class created in March 2017 that slashed prices on some Canadian-produced milk ingredients — like protein concentrates, skim milk and whole milk powder — used to make cheese and yogurt. The co-ordinated price cut made the American equivalents uncompetitive.
Trump administration officials pounced on this change Sunday, touting it as a major breakthrough for American farmers, especially in Wisconsin and New York, where dairy farmers are eager to offload some of their product on Canada as they grapple with severe oversupply.
At the outset of the NAFTA talks, the U.S. demanded Canada dismantle supply management entirely — something that Trudeau has always maintained was a non-starter. Its preservation, save for a few tweaks, will be pitched as a success story by the governing Liberals.
Steel and aluminum imports still an open question
Canada is also expected to sign on to this new NAFTA without any reassurances that the U.S. will lift its so-called "section 232" tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — a coup for the economic nationalists that surround Trump who believe that protectionist measures like these punitive tariffs can help salvage the declining U.S. steel industry.
"There isn't any agreement on that at this point," a Trump administration official said. "There's been talk about potential discussions there, but that's on a completely separate track."
Those tariffs were levied on "national security" grounds using presidential authority granted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which gives the president broad powers to impose tariffs without consulting Congress. Canada responded to Trump's move with counter-tariffs on billions of dollars worth of U.S. goods.
While technically separate from NAFTA talks, the U.S. has used the threat of further 232 tariffs on autos to extract concessions from Canada and Mexico — a frightening proposition for the Canadians.
No hard limit on auto exports
Importantly for Canadian negotiators, Trump has agreed that no hard limit will be placed on Canadian auto exports to the U.S.
That said, should the U.S. move forward with the imposition of worldwide 232 tariffs on autos, they would also apply to Canada.
However, Ottawa has negotiated what is effectively an exemption, as it would still be able to export cars and parts tariff-free up to a certain amount that is well above what Canada sends south of the border.
Sources could not immediately confirm the exact number of cars or parts that would be allowable, but U.S. officials said there has been an "accommodation" reached.
U.S.-Mexico deal came first
Last month, Trump announced his negotiators had reached a bilateral deal with Mexico.
The Canadians have already said they are pleased with what the U.S. had negotiated bilaterally with Mexico on changes to "rules of origin" around autos, championing the changes as good for middle-class workers on both sides of the border.
The revised USMCA deal will require 75 per cent of auto content to be made in North America, up from 62.5 per cent under the current NAFTA.
It would also require 40-45 per cent of auto content made in Mexico to be made by workers earning at least $16 US an hour, placating unions in Canada and the U.S. concerned about high-paying jobs moving to Mexico's low-wage economy.
According to the U.S. Trade Representative, Canada ships more than $56 billion US worth of autos — cars and parts alike — to the U.S. each year. The auto industry employs more than 120,000 people in Canada, with most of those jobs concentrated in southwestern Ontario.
Canada has also secured exemptions for its creative industries.
The existing NAFTA deal includes a cultural exemption clause, which means cultural goods are not treated like other commercial products — and that will continue under the new terms of the agreement. Lighthizer has previously cited Canada's broadcasting content and telecommunication ownership rules as an irritant.
Deal to be sent to Congress
U.S. negotiators have been gunning for a new NAFTA by month's end to get a text of the agreement to Congress for its mandatory 60-day review period. That could allow for a deal to be signed before Dec 1., when Mexico's new, left-leaning president takes office.
Under U.S. law, while Congress can extend fast-track negotiating authority to Trump administration officials — as it has with NAFTA — legislators retain the right to review any proposed trade agreement and decide whether it will be implemented. That relationship is governed by a set of strict, legislated timelines that allow Congress enough time to study a deal before delivering a decision.
Tonight, Canada and the United States reached an agreement, alongside Mexico, on a new and modern trade agreement, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (#USMCA). Read the statement: https://bit.ly/2y277yY
A Trump administration official said Trudeau, Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will sign the USMCA at the end of November.
It will then be up to the next Congress — which could be fundamentally reconstituted after November's midterm elections — to ratify the agreement before it comes in to force.
About the Author
With files from the CBC's Katie Simpson, Chris Hall
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