The Trump administration announced on Monday it has reached a preliminary deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. The original pact also includes Canada but there is no deal yet with the northern neighbor. Cross-border trade interests in northern New York are encouraging negotiators in Washington and Canada to quickly reach an agreement.
The announcement Monday that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a preliminary trade agreement is being welcomed by northern border officials.
Canada's NAFTA negotiator cut short a European trip to fly to Washington on Tuesday to try to restart talks. SUNY Plattsburgh Center for the Study of Canada Director Christopher Kirkey says the quick resolution with Mexico may have surprised Canadian officials. “Canada’s been on the sidelines now for several weeks. They’ve had plenty of time and they have a good sense of how the negotiations with the Mexicans have gone along. They need to be prepared to play ball. We’re at a stage of the game that the Canadians need frankly to realize that just saying no is not acceptable to Washington that there’s a range of issues. And the Canadians, really to be quite honest with you, haven’t taken a very proactive serious approach to the negotiations to date. And they certainly need to now.”
A.N. Deringer is one of the largest customs brokers in North America. Director of Customs Affairs and Compliance Amy Magnus is also President of the Board of Directors for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America. She says businesses along America’s northern border want certainty and she hopes for swift negotiations with Canada. “It would calm a lot of nerves. If we can come up with good rules then things might get back to normal at least as normal as they can be because we still have that overlay of some of the other disruptions that have been caused by the 301 those Chinese duties, and by those duties on steel and aluminum, and the 201 duties on solar panels and washing machines. All of these new aggressive duties all have an impact on anybody that’s importing or exporting anywhere in the world.”
The North Country Chamber of Commerce issued a statement after the Trump administration’s announcement noting that negotiations with Mexico were expected to be the most challenging. President and CEO Garry Douglas says New York and Quebec are increasingly becoming a single economic region with an inconvenient border. He claims that makes a completed trade agreement crucial. “Our supply chains are increasingly integrated in very complex ways sometimes with things going back and forth more than once before the completed product is put to the market. We enjoy a surplus of trade with Canada. So with those integrated supply chains the notion of applying things like tariffs would just be a terrible act of self-harm for the U.S. It would damage jobs and industry and manufacturing here in upstate New York and would actually hurt our competitiveness with China. The U.S. and Canada together make both of us more competitive with China. Interrupting that is actually helping China.”
And Douglas says a new agreement must be crafted quickly. “The new government takes office in Mexico at the end of the year. Canadian federal elections are due next year. There are real reasons why it would be very positive to now have Canada and the U.S. ideally reach an agreement in a matter of weeks not months. That would allow a required 90 day notice to Congress to be made which would still allow for Congressional review and action this year by the U.S. Congress and have us ideally all set and back in business together back in partnership for the new year.”
Canada is the United States’ second largest trading partner.
