In my post yesterday, I asked for some Canadian and Mexican reaction to the Obama/Clinton calls to "re-negotiate" NAFTA. Debra Steger offered some views in a comment. Here are some reactions in the press from Canadian government officals:
Trade Minister David Emerson suggested the United States has a sweet deal over access to Canada's oil under the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying the two Democratic presidential candidates calling for renegotiations may not know just how good the U.S. has it under the deal.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iAnllHOZKWHSuOSWtGnSfK2lgSGg
``If you reopen Nafta, you re-open it for all three parties,'' Emerson said. ``If you reopen it for one or two issues, you cannot avoid reopening across the range of issues. If Nafta were reopened, we would have our list of priorities.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aYCVzDarOock&refer=canada
"I've been very concerned for a couple of years now. The rhetoric of protectionism has been creeping, it's been getting more strident, it's permeating Congress, protectionist groups are flexing their muscle," Canadian International Trade Minister David Emerson told a crush of reporters.
"And it's not just the heat of the election campaign that's causing concern."
Emerson said that if the United States left NAFTA, which also includes Mexico, he did not envisage it suddenly erecting large tariff barriers....
The Conservative minister, a former lumber company executive, predicted the United States will not pull out of NAFTA.
"I think sound, wise judgment will prevail at the end of the day," he said.
Liberal Member of Parliament John McCallum, a former bank economist, said he was concerned about protectionist sentiment among some Democrats. "If the U.S. were to pull out of NAFTA it would be a catastrophe for Canada," he said.
However, he dismissed the idea that this would actually happen.
"That's the political rhetoric you get in a political race where the stakes are high and it's close. You have to remember that while it would be disastrous to Canada it would also be disastrous to many millions of Americans who trade with Canada," he said.
"So at the end of the day I don't think it will happen."
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN27455425
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says there needs to be a recognition by Americans that NAFTA benefits the United States tremendously.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080227.wflahertnaft0227/BNStory/International
