The director of the Cross Border Institute admits he has some real concerns about North American Free Trade Agreement talks.
The second day of the first round of negotiations was underway in Washington on Thursday, and already the Washington-based Public Citizen's Global Watch fears aggressive rhetoric on the first day from U.S. raises the possibility it will walk if it does not get the deal it wants.
Windsor-Detroit Tunnel heading into Detroit, June 27, 2014. (photo by Mike Vlasveld)
Bill Anderson says if the U.S. pull out of NAFTA, it will hurt professionals who cross the border to work hard.
"If this trade agreement were to go away, we have a lot of people who commute across the border, most of those people would be under the TN Visa program which is defined in NAFTA. So, then you wouldn't have a legal basis for that cross-border commuting if you didn't have either NAFTA or a reinstatement of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement," he says.
Canada has said it wants the freer movement of professionals, along with labour standards, environmental standards, new chapters on gender and indigenous rights, an expansion of procurement, and protections of supply management systems for dairy and poultry.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also targeted the auto sector in his opening remarks saying thousands of American factory workers have lost their jobs because of provisions in the trade pact.
Anderson says comments about reducing the trade deficit between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico also caught his attention.
"I think he said it explicitly, that in addition to rules of origin, which say which percentage of something that's manufactured in North America -- he seems to be calling for specific American content," he says. "Which is a pretty significant change and an unusual thing for trade agreements."
He believes that rhetoric may have been aimed more at Mexico.
A look inside Windsors Chrysler Assembly Plant, February 9, 2015. (Photo by Jason Viau)
The original trade deal took four years to negotiate, but the Americans have indicated they want renegotiations to go much faster, possibly wrapping up by the end of 2017. Anderson thinks the time line may be optimistic.
"It would be one thing if the administration said that okay, we've got four things we want to deal with," he says. "But when the administration gave their letter that has to go to Congress -- it was like 15 pages long. Really, it seems to imply that what they have in mind is a complete renegotiation and I just don't know how you do it that fast."
This round of talks is expected to wrap up on Saturday. They will resume in Mexico next month before coming to Canada.
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