NAFTA Agreement and increasing tension among Canada, Mexico and United States

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On Tuesday, the United States and Canada exchanged criticisms regarding sluggish negotiations on NAFTA update. It ultimately increases tensions about trade discussions. The discussions have effectively hampered as Canada and Mexico are looking to address wide-ranging U.S. demands for changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The officials have indicated that the deadline of early March for finalizing the discussions has been extended to April 2018. But, experts believe that it might take months longer than that. The chief negotiator of Canada, Steve Verheul informed Ottawa audience that the United States aimed to weaken Canada and Mexico, instead of ensuring that the $1.2 trillion trilateral trade pact benefited all 3 members.

The U.S Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also said in Washington that discussions with Mexico regarding NAFTA were going well. He didn’t mention about Canada. The U.S President Donald Trump frequently threatens to walk away from NAFTA unless big changes are made. Verheul said in a news conference organized by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute that the U.S. approach is to focus on the U.S perspective only, instead of a North American perspective. So, they are looking to strengthen the U.S. and by doing that weaken Canada and Mexico within the North American economy. Canada has made a number of creative proposals to address the U.S. insistence that the North American content to be raised. Washington needs a clause that would allow any NAFTA member to pull out after 5 years.