Former opposition leader Rona Ambrose is among 13 Canadians on a new non-partisan NAFTA advisory council announced today.

Former opposition leader Rona Ambrose is among 13 Canadians on a new non-partisan NAFTA advisory council announced today.
Photo Credit: PC / Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press

Liberals bolster NAFTA team, reach out to former foes for advice

The Liberal government announced new diplomatic appointments and set up a broad-based advisory body Wednesday in an effort to beef up its negotiating team and present a unified front ahead of crucial trilateral trade negotiations with the United States and Mexico set to begin in two weeks.

The Liberals reached out to former political adversaries on the left and on the right, including former interim leader of the Conservative Party Rona Ambrose to participate in a 13-member advisory council on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Other members of the newly created body include James Moore, a former minister in the previous Conservative government, and Brian Topp, a veteran New Democratic Party strategist, one-time NDP leadership contender and former chief of staff to Alberta’s NDP premier, Rachel Notley.

Team Canada approach
Former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore has also been named to the NAFTA advisory council
Former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore has also been named to the NAFTA advisory council © Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press

The membership is designed to demonstrate that the government is taking a unified, non-partisan, Team Canada approach to the negotiations, which are set to start Aug. 16.

The council also includes representatives of various groups that have the most at stake in the negotiations, among them, Canadian Labour Congress president Hassan Yussuff; Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of automotive parts manufacturer Linamar Corp., and Marcel Groleau, president of Quebec’s union of agricultural producers.

Also named to the council are Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Annette Verschuren, former president of Home Depot, and Phyllis Yaffe, former chair of Cineplex Entertainment and CEO of Alliance Atlantis who is currently serving as Canada’s consul general in New York City.

Council participants are expected to provide their “unfiltered opinion to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for her consideration in advance of and during the course of negotiations with NAFTA partners Mexico and the United States, based on your expertise and experience,” the council’s terms of reference said.

Bolstering diplomatic presence in the U.S.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the Liberal government is boosting its diplomatic presence in the U.S. with the appointment of new consuls general in San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta, and a new deputy ambassador in Washington, D.C.
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the Liberal government is boosting its diplomatic presence in the U.S. with the appointment of new consuls general in San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta, and a new deputy ambassador in Washington, D.C. © Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Freeland also announced Wednesday the appointment of one of Canada’s foremost trade experts, Kirsten Hillman, as deputy ambassador to the United States, and three new trade-savvy consuls general to be located in Atlanta, Seattle and San Francisco.

“With the expansion of our consular presence in the United States and the creation of the NAFTA council, we are furthering Canada’s determination to promote Canadian interests and values in our bilateral relations with our main economic partner,” Freeland said in a written statement.

Wait-and-see approach?

The Conservative Party welcomed the inclusion of Ambrose and Moore on the advisory council but blasted the Liberals for losing “valuable time by taking a wait-and-see approach to renegotiations.”

“Instead of being a forceful advocate for Canadian jobs from day one, they have chosen‎ to focus on a trade deal with China over protecting a decades-long agreement with our closest ally and largest trading partner, the United States,” Conservative MP Randy Hoback, the party’s Canada-U.S. relations critic, said in a statement to RCI.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to get a better deal on NAFTA or tear it up if he can't
U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to get a better deal on NAFTA or tear it up if he can’t © Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

While the NDP’s international trade critic Tracey Ramsey welcomed the inclusion of diverse voices on the council, she said it does not excuse the Liberals from being transparent and accountable with NAFTA to Canadians.

“Since (U.S. President Donald) Trump was elected, NAFTA has been on the table and we know they’re talking about it in the U.S., we saw the priorities released two weeks ago publicly in the U.S. and we still have nothing to tell us what the Liberal priorities are in the renegotiation of NAFTA,” Ramsey told RCI.

Demanding transparency

Liberal arguments that they want to keep their cards close to the chest and not to give away their negotiating positions prior to the trade talks do not hold water, Ramsey said.

“I think if 18 pages can be released from the U.S. with their priorities, we certainly can respond to that and show what our priorities are,” Ramsey said. “Understandably, they’re not going to reveal their negotiating tactics, things that they are willing to negotiate on – Canadians are not looking for that, what Canadians are looking for is the level of transparency that was promised by this government around trade agreements.”

Protecting Canada’s dairy and supply management systems are important priorities for the NDP, she said.

“We’ve already opened up a great portion of our market with CETA that will have an impact on those supply managed sectors,” Ramsey said referring to the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union.

Chapter 11 out, Chapter 19 in

Removing NAFTA’s Chapter 11, the investor state dispute settlement mechanism, is another priority to for the NDP, Ramsey said.

“This chapter has Canada to be the most sued country in the world under these provisions, largely for our attempts to regulate and legislate to protect our environment,” Ramsey said.

On the other hand, the NDP wants Ottawa to fight to keep alive NAFTA’s Chapter 19 provisions, the trade dispute resolution panel that allows Mexico and Canada to appeal decisions made by the U.S. to slap duties on their products.

The elimination of Chapter 19 is one of the key NAFTA negotiation priorities released by the Trump administration last month.

“There is something else that I believe that the Liberals could come clean about very easily and it was listed as a priority by the U.S. as well and that’s to take the labour and environmental chapters and entrench them into the agreement,” Ramsey said.

With files from The Canadian Press

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