Globe and Mail writer John Ibbitson reports that both Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama have committed to demanding that NAFTA be renegotiated if they are elected to the White House in November.
Asked whether she would inform Canada and Mexico that the U.S. government was activating the six-month opt-out clause under which any country can leave the deal, Ms. Clinton replied: “I’ve said that I will renegotiate NAFTA, so obviously we’d have to say to Canada and Mexico that that’s exactly what we’re going to do; … we will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it.”
Mr. Obama agreed with Ms. Clinton’s stand. “I will make sure that we renegotiate in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about,” he said. “I think, actually, Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage.
As if I didn’t have enough reasons to think that the world would be better place if America elected the Democratic nominee (most of them provided by 8 years of George W Bush and crew), this one is icing on the cake. Here we have the top two Democratic contenders committing to do exactly what the Green Party has been advocating. (see Vision Green)
And this also adds to my list of reasons why we need an election in Canada sooner, rather than later. Do we really want Stephen Harper and the Conservatives renegotiating this deal?
They gave in on softwood lumber, they have not insisted on a proper dispute resolution mechanism, they taxed income trusts making them ripe for foreign takeovers, they have shown no interest in limiting flows of oil, natural gas, or any other resources across our border, and have shown no interest in establishing a national strategic oil reserve for Canada.
Yes, NAFTA needs to be renegotiated. But Canadians must think long and hard about who they want at the table for those discussions and vote accordingly.
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Well, I’m not one to trust the Tories, but I’d also like to think they wouldn’t sell us down the river (and, ironically, I wonder if they wouldn’t be a bit more aggressive with President Clinton, or President Obama then they were with Bush!).
It’s only rhetoric, but I do generally like the tone (and reasonably fast response) of our International Trade Minister:
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/307513“ rel=”nofollow”>If NAFTA opened, oil could be on table: Emerson.
He didn’t exactly threaten to reassert our prerogative to cut off the Americans supply of oil and energy from Canada if NAFTA is unilaterally scrapped, but he did explicitly point out that it’s NAFTA that prevents us from doing that now.