NAFTA

With the passage of an informal deadline for completing the renegotiation of the NAFTA the Vice President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute expects the pressure for a quick conclusion of the negotiations to ease.
With a mid May deadline for concluding the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement to avoid conflicts with Mexican presidential elections and U.S. mid term elections having passed, expectations are that a final deal will be significantly delayed.
Colin Robertson, the Vice-President and a fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, expects the profile of the negotiations to shift.

Clip-Colin Robertson-Canadian Global Affairs Institute:
My sense is that the negotiations will continue but probably more at the working level.
I think it’s less likely that the ministers will be getting together with the same regularity that they have particularly in the last six weeks because we have a number of events that will intrude.
First of all the Mexican election is now in full swing.
That election takes place on July 1.
There are some 30 thousand offices from the President, a number of Governors and their Congress, both Senate and their Legislative Assembly as well as provincial legislatures and municipal and county elections.
And we have the U.S. mid-term elections in November.
What normally happens during election campaigns is that trade negotiations either take a pause or move to a technical level where there’s not a requirement for political decisions, especially when it is possible that it seems likely that there may be a change in the configuration of the government.

Robertson says, while there is a desire to keep the momentum going, the pressure for a quick deal has been lifted and the desire within Congress to take the time needed to reach a full comprehensive agreement is growing.
For Farmscape.Ca, I’m Bruce Cochrane.