Canada Amenable To Reopening NAFTA Negotiations With President-Elect Trump
Canada is more than willing to reopen negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with President-elect Donald Trump – especially about softwood lumber, a long-standing sore spot, a report Thursday in the Ottawa Business Journal said.
"I think any agreement can be improved. If they want to have a discussion about improving NAFTA, then we're ready to come to the table." - Canadian Ambassador to Washington David MacNaughton
While Canada Believes the agreement as it stands has benefited all three countries, It also feels the accord could still be upgraded. MacNaughton stopped short of disclosing details of what Canada would seek in an updated agreement, saying he'd prefer to save that for the discussion table, the report said.
He did say, however, he'd appreciate expanding the agreement to cover a perennial irritant, excluded from the original agreement: "The first thing I'd love to see is free trade in lumber."
Upgrading the 1993 agreement was a major promise in Trump's successful election campaign; Trump says if the U.S.'s neighbors do not agree to renegotiate it, he'd move to scrap the deal - a move observers say trade could be quite complicated, the report said.
"NAFTA was the worst trade deal in history," Trump said in campaign speeches.
"I'm going tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to Immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers. And I do not mean just a little bit better - I mean a lot better," Trump said ,
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