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OTTAWA–Industry Minister Jim Prentice talked up the North American Free Trade Agreement in the United States yesterday in an attempt to counter criticism of the trade pact south of the border.
"Under the auspices of NAFTA we have created an incredibly successful trading relationship," Prentice told the Toronto Star after speaking to the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta.
"I think there is a general understanding ... of the benefits ... a three-way arrangement between ourselves, the United States and Mexico has brought to all three countries (since 1994)," he said.
With manufacturing jobs disappearing in the United States at an alarming rate, there is a growing chorus of voices blaming the free trade deal for bleeding off jobs to Canada and Mexico.
Canada's concern was ratcheted up when, early in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Senator Barack Obama called for the trade pact to be reopened. A cross-border controversy ensued after the leak of a Canadian memo citing a meeting in which an Obama campaign official seemed to say to the remarks were just political rhetoric. The memo embarrassed the Obama camp and the Harper government, and resulted in a much-criticized probe into the source of the leak by the Privy Council clerk that turned up very little.
Prentice told the Star that half the battle in dealing with American officials and business leaders is reminding them that Canada is their largest trading partner, including in energy sources.
"On oil alone, Canada has been the largest supplier to the U.S. since 1999 – not Saudi Arabia, not Kuwait, nor any other producer from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. We have 14 per cent of global oil reserves, putting us second only to Saudi Arabia," he told the Atlanta audience.
Prentice said in the interview he will remind Americans of that fact at every turn. "I have and will continue to reiterate that to people. Does everyone understand that? I doubt it," he said.
Canada and the U.S. are the world's largest trading partners with nearly $2 billion in trade crossing the border every day.
"That's double what it was just five years ago and it is behind more than seven million U.S. jobs, as well as one in five Canadian jobs," he said in his speech, in which he also noted that trade among the three countries has tripled since 1993 to almost $1 trillion a year.
Prentice told the Star the one message he tries to leave with Americans, whether in Washington, Denver, Dallas, Houston or Chicago, is that "with NAFTA we have built the most successful trading relationship in the world and that is fundamental to our prosperity."
