{"id":9763,"date":"2018-07-08T07:59:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T11:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=9763"},"modified":"2023-07-24T21:03:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T01:03:53","slug":"the-canada-u-s-trade-talks-saga-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=9763","title":{"rendered":"The Canada-U.S. Trade Talks Saga (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Niagara Independent, July 6, 2018<\/em> – In Ottawa, there are two prevailing threads of thought on what has become the never-ending saga of the Canada-U.S. Trade Talks. One is rallying behind Prime Minister Trudeau and supporting the Liberal Government\u2019s attempt to reason with an unpredictable U.S. President. The second is highly critical, suggesting that the Liberals are purposely sabotaging the negotiations for their own domestic political gains.\u00a0The next three columns will review the political gamesmanship between Canada and the U.S. and assess what all the public posturing may mean for the outcome of the trade talks \u2013 and for the 2019 federal election.<\/em><\/p>\n

For months, Ottawa\u2019s political networks and national press corps have been wholly focused on U.S. President Donald Trump and his every utterance on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canadians are anxious. Given the magnitude of trade between our two countries, NAFTA has a large impact on our country\u2019s economic growth and maintaining our standard of living.<\/p>\n

A number of Canadian political and business leaders are supportive of the Trudeau Liberals\u2019 trade efforts to date. Almost all are sympathetic and defending PM Trudeau in the wake of the disastrous wrap-up to the recent G7 Economic Summit. Today, the personal and working relationships between a Canadian PM and a US President (and, therefore, the fate of the NAFTA talks) have never appeared on more unstable ground. A pivotal moment passed at the G7 Summit and there are many conflicting accounts about what exactly happened. But, after assuming the two leaders had come to an agreement on core elements of a trade deal in their private conversations, President Trump took insult to the PMs closing remarks. The President went on a multi-tweet rant about how PM Trudeau had blindsided him, insulting Trudeau as \u201cvery dishonest and weak.\u201d The President\u2019s trade advisor Peter Navarro said there was a \u201cspecial place in hell\u201d for Trudeau for betraying the President.<\/p>\n

That outbreak immediately evoked base reactions. Somewhat diplomatically, Canada\u2019s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland stated her nation \u201cdoes not conduct its diplomacy through ad hominem attacks\u201d (and then just a few days later in Washington she made not-so-subtle comparisons between Trump and Hitler).<\/p>\n

The PMs comments and the subsequent name calling served to galvanize Canadians\u2019 feelings of uneasiness and disapproval with the U.S. President. Being the victim of the President\u2019s scorn, Trudeau gained newfound support in his negotiating stance with the President. Former PM Brian Mulroney stated: \u201cI\u2019ve never seen language like this. Least of all from subordinates of the president directed at the prime minister of their greatest friend and ally. This, I\u2019ve never seen before. Nor has anybody else\u2026 International negotiations, they have their ebbs and flows. This is an ebb.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Manley, former Liberal deputy prime minister, who now serves as president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, publicly stated that though it may be \u201cvery tough,\u201d the Trudeau government must \u201cstay the course.\u201d Manley offered this advice: \u201cI think that maybe Prime Minister Trudeau should consult with, I don\u2019t know, a psychologist or somebody to say, \u2018How do I deal with an important counterpart who has this tendency to narcissistic personality disorder?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like if you were sitting with a friend and then out of the blue, you just punched them in the face. The wounds will heal, but the question [is] how does the relationship get impacted?\u2026 I think it was a line crossed and a bridge too far. They owe you an apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Yet, for Canadians, better than an apology would be a signature on a trade agreement.)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next week: Have the Liberals purposely sabotaged the trade negotiations for their political gain in an election year?<\/em><\/p>\n

Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of CG&A COMMUNICATIONS.\u00a0<\/em>ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LINK:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/niagaraindependent.ca\/the-canada-u-s-trade-talks-saga-part-one\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, July 6, 2018 – In Ottawa, there are two prevailing threads of thought on what has become the never-ending saga of the Canada-U.S. Trade Talks. One is rallying behind Prime Minister Trudeau and supporting the Liberal Government\u2019s attempt to reason with an unpredictable U.S. President. The second is highly critical, suggesting that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[76,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10664,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9763\/revisions\/10664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}