High Incentive to Quickly and Successfully Conclude NAFTA

The acting Executive Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance suggests there is a great deal of incentive to bring the renegotiation of NAFTA to a quick and successful conclusion

by Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online

“The feeling is that, if it’s not done by the start of the year, there’ll be a fair bit of time lost and there is, I think, in the current U.S. administration, a desire to get another of their key platform elements to be brought to what, in their view, would be a successful conclusion,” Martin Rice, the acting Executive Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance said during a recent interview with FarmScape Online.

“There’s an expectation on the U.S. for the Mexican part of it getting done”

 

Rice observes they have a very intensive negotiating schedule.

“Basically you’re looking at every third week being a round and these are four to five day events with the next round starting on the first of September in Mexico,” Rice added. “The next round after that will be in Canada, likely Ottawa, in the third week of September.”

Rice notes the first round of what’s expected to be seven rounds between now and the end of the year has concluded.

“The first round of negotiations was aimed at revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement,” he said. “But based on any negotiation I’ve been involved in, they’re still trying to cover all of the issues and there’s an expectation on the U.S. for the Mexican part getting done.”

He told FarmScape Online that Canada is following that schedule but the U.S. and Mexico both have a high importance attached to having the process completed by January, given Mexican Presidential elections are taking place mid next year and then the U.S, mid-term elections in the fall.

However he expects the next round to see some specifics coming out of the negotiations.

Bruce Cochrane – FarmScape Online