Combatbookworm
03-10-2010, 02:34 PM
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2663187
WASHINGTON -- The Harper government sought Tuesday to fend off a new trade threat from U.S. lawmakers pushing legislation to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The anti-NAFTA bill, which has 28 Democratic and Republican sponsors, comes only a month after Canada and the U.S. reached a deal to end a protracted dispute over Buy American provisions in the $787-billion economic stimulus package.
With U.S. midterm elections coming in November and the American economy still losing jobs, the legislation could portend another wave of protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill.
"We are closely following this bill, of course," International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan told reporters in Ottawa. "Our evaluation is that this is certainly inconsistent with the direction that the Barack Obama administration has chosen."
At issue is legislation introduced last week in the House of Representatives by Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who cited America's near-10% unemployment rate as the motivation for trying to kill the trade agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Mr. Taylor, a member of the influential Blue Dog caucus of conservative Democrats, is a 10-term congressman who voted against passage of NAFTA in 1993. He blames the treaty for a 29% drop in U.S. manufacturing employment over the ensuing 17 years.
"At a time when 10 to 12% of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work," Mr. Taylor said when introducing the bill. "Timing is everything in life and it's the right time to pass this legislation. Proponents have had more than enough time to make this work. It didn't."
The legislation proposes the U.S. withdraw from NAFTA within six months of the bill's passage.
Mr. Taylor has assembled an eclectic crew of Democratic and Republican co-sponsors for the legislation. On the political left are Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, a perennial presidential candidate, and Pete Visclosky, the Indiana lawmaker responsible for inserting the Buy American language into last year's stimulus bill.
Among the three Republican backers of the bill is Texas Representative Ron Paul.
Mr. Paul, a former GOP presidential candidate, has stoked fears of a NAFTA superhighway "the width of several football fields" that would stretch from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The anti-NAFTA lawmakers face a tough challenge in advancing their legislation at a time when Congress is focused on passage of a health care bill. They also face significant resistance from President Barack Obama, who used his state of the union address in January to champion free trade as a way for the U.S. to grow its way of the recession.
The Buy American deal struck in February between Ottawa and Washington was a "demonstration of the Obama administration's commitment to free trade," Mr. Van Loan said.
"And as such, we are optimistic this [anti-NAFTA legislation] will not come to pass."
Still, Canadian officials are wary because anti-NAFTA sentiment tends to spike ahead of elections. One national U.S. media outlet has described an "outbreak of protectionist fever" in Congress as the November midterms approach.
"NAFTA has become a moniker for anxiety about globalization and worries about the economy," said Maryscott Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council.
"There's a lack of awareness about the important role that Canada and the United States play in each other's economies. There is just a real fundamental misunderstanding about how integrated our supply chains are."
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who favours renegotiating NAFTA, said he hoped the U.S. bill might bring renewed political pressure on the Obama administration to renegotiate environmental and labour agreements in the treaty.
"So maybe what we're seeing here is the beginning of a shift in the U.S. Congress that could lead toward some renegotiation which we think is -- it's high time that that happened," Mr. Layton said.
In addition to the anti-NAFTA bill, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown last week introduced his own legislation that would require the U.S. to review all existing trade agreements before entering into new deals.
"We need hard data on the effect our trade agreements have on American wages and jobs, so that we know what we are getting ourselves into before we move forward," Mr. Brown said.
Other lawmakers continue to write Buy American provisions into other pieces of legislation. New York Senator Charles Schumer, for instance, this week introduced Buy American amendments into a green energy bill. It was aimed at requiring only U.S.-made equipment be used in power plants fuelled by renewable energy, such as wind
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2663187#ixzz0hnuOzBBd
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WASHINGTON -- The Harper government sought Tuesday to fend off a new trade threat from U.S. lawmakers pushing legislation to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The anti-NAFTA bill, which has 28 Democratic and Republican sponsors, comes only a month after Canada and the U.S. reached a deal to end a protracted dispute over Buy American provisions in the $787-billion economic stimulus package.
With U.S. midterm elections coming in November and the American economy still losing jobs, the legislation could portend another wave of protectionist sentiment on Capitol Hill.
"We are closely following this bill, of course," International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan told reporters in Ottawa. "Our evaluation is that this is certainly inconsistent with the direction that the Barack Obama administration has chosen."
At issue is legislation introduced last week in the House of Representatives by Representative Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat who cited America's near-10% unemployment rate as the motivation for trying to kill the trade agreement involving Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Mr. Taylor, a member of the influential Blue Dog caucus of conservative Democrats, is a 10-term congressman who voted against passage of NAFTA in 1993. He blames the treaty for a 29% drop in U.S. manufacturing employment over the ensuing 17 years.
"At a time when 10 to 12% of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work," Mr. Taylor said when introducing the bill. "Timing is everything in life and it's the right time to pass this legislation. Proponents have had more than enough time to make this work. It didn't."
The legislation proposes the U.S. withdraw from NAFTA within six months of the bill's passage.
Mr. Taylor has assembled an eclectic crew of Democratic and Republican co-sponsors for the legislation. On the political left are Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, a perennial presidential candidate, and Pete Visclosky, the Indiana lawmaker responsible for inserting the Buy American language into last year's stimulus bill.
Among the three Republican backers of the bill is Texas Representative Ron Paul.
Mr. Paul, a former GOP presidential candidate, has stoked fears of a NAFTA superhighway "the width of several football fields" that would stretch from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The anti-NAFTA lawmakers face a tough challenge in advancing their legislation at a time when Congress is focused on passage of a health care bill. They also face significant resistance from President Barack Obama, who used his state of the union address in January to champion free trade as a way for the U.S. to grow its way of the recession.
The Buy American deal struck in February between Ottawa and Washington was a "demonstration of the Obama administration's commitment to free trade," Mr. Van Loan said.
"And as such, we are optimistic this [anti-NAFTA legislation] will not come to pass."
Still, Canadian officials are wary because anti-NAFTA sentiment tends to spike ahead of elections. One national U.S. media outlet has described an "outbreak of protectionist fever" in Congress as the November midterms approach.
"NAFTA has become a moniker for anxiety about globalization and worries about the economy," said Maryscott Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council.
"There's a lack of awareness about the important role that Canada and the United States play in each other's economies. There is just a real fundamental misunderstanding about how integrated our supply chains are."
NDP Leader Jack Layton, who favours renegotiating NAFTA, said he hoped the U.S. bill might bring renewed political pressure on the Obama administration to renegotiate environmental and labour agreements in the treaty.
"So maybe what we're seeing here is the beginning of a shift in the U.S. Congress that could lead toward some renegotiation which we think is -- it's high time that that happened," Mr. Layton said.
In addition to the anti-NAFTA bill, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown last week introduced his own legislation that would require the U.S. to review all existing trade agreements before entering into new deals.
"We need hard data on the effect our trade agreements have on American wages and jobs, so that we know what we are getting ourselves into before we move forward," Mr. Brown said.
Other lawmakers continue to write Buy American provisions into other pieces of legislation. New York Senator Charles Schumer, for instance, this week introduced Buy American amendments into a green energy bill. It was aimed at requiring only U.S.-made equipment be used in power plants fuelled by renewable energy, such as wind
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=2663187#ixzz0hnuOzBBd
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