Canadians Want NAFTA Reformed, Too

With President Obama visiting Canada today, I know there's a lot of dishonest rhetoric flying around about how reforming NAFTA will supposedly raise the ire of Canadians (oooh, how scary!), and how NAFTA reform is supposedly just the pet cause of America's greedy unions and wild-eyed left-wingers. There's just one problem with that claim: Not only do polls show most Americans - union members, non-union workers, liberal, conservative, or otherwise - want NAFTA reformed, but polls also show Canadians actually think NAFTA sucks and want it reformed, too.

Back in May, after John McCain claimed that fixing our trade policy would ruin our relationship with Canada, I wrote a column referencing a Toronto Star poll that found roughly half of all Canadians believe NAFTA should be outright renegotiated, and about 80 percent saying the treaty had done little or nothing for workers. The Star has followed up that poll with this report this week:

It's time to renegotiate NAFTA, critics tell Harper

Coalition wants to see trade pact on the agenda for Obama's state visit

A coalition of major Canadian organizations yesterday urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to signal Canada's willingness to renegotiate NAFTA in talks next week with President Barack Obama.

In a letter sent in the run-up to next Thursday's first visit to Ottawa by the new president, the coalition stresses revisiting NAFTA doesn't mean scrapping it, but rather committing to a "transparent and comprehensive renegotiation."

Signatories to yesterday's letter to Harper include unions and religious, environmental, student and social justice organizations.

The letter also calls for an end to the ultrasecret Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, known privately among trade activists as "NAFTA on steroids."

Adding to this, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives today released a report called "The Obama Effect" looking at how and why NAFTA should be reformed from a Canadian perspective - and it's findings are pretty stunning.

The report notes that under the deal, multinational corporations are allowed to sue for the overturning of federal, state and local public interest laws in signatory countries if those laws cut into corporate profits. The report also points out that the ultraconservative Harper government's criticism of "Buy America" laws are substantively silly, and being used by that country's right-wing ideologues to prevent the Canadian parliament from enacting its own much-needed stimulus package:

“If I were the U.S. president, I would be concerned Canada was free riding on the coat tails of a U.S. recovery initiative to jump start its own economy” said report author Bruce Campbell, the CCPA’s Executive Director. “And I would be pressuring the Canadian Prime Minister to do his part to enhance the chances of an expeditious North American and global recovery.”

“This is the most dangerous recession since the 1930s and so far Harper has low-balled Canada’s fiscal stimulus and heightened tensions by throwing darts at U.S. ‘buy America’ initiatives,” says Campbell. “In reality, ‘buy America’ provisions are legal under free trade agreements and their effects pale in comparison with the disastrous trade consequences if our governments fail to quickly revive the North American economy.

“Rather than lecturing the U.S. president on the theoretical virtues of free trade, Harper would be better advised to re-examine how Canada can pull its weight by improving its own fiscal measures to fight the recession. "

So, while I'm sure we're going to hear lots of talk today about how average Canadians are going to unleash their frightening fury on America if we push to renegotiate NAFTA and strengthen our Buy America laws, the facts show that's a manufactured and fantastical storyline ginned up by a drama-seeking media and by free-trade fundamentalists - the latter of which aims to mask their ideology and corporate fealty in the argot of progressive international relations.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future