[Cross-posted from European Tribune – where dissent is NOT troll rated!]
[Highlights, edits and links added by me – Oui]
Canada’s Justin Trudeau says NAFTA talks broke down after Pence made ultimatum | Denver Post |
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said months of intense negotiations between his country, the United States, and Mexico imploded on June 5th when Vice President Mike Pence demanded that any deal expire automatically in five years.
Trudeau said he was prepared to travel to Washington this week to try and finalize a rework of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but Pence – in the phone call – said a meeting would only occur if the “sunset” provision was agreed to in advance.
Continued below the fold …
“I had to highlight that there was no possibility of any Canadian prime minister signing a NAFTA deal that included a five year sunset clause, and obviously the visit didn’t happen,” Trudeau said Thursday.
Trudeau said he felt the U.S., Mexico and Canada were on the verge of a renegotiated NAFTA that he described as a “win, win, win” before the talks stalled after the Pence phone call.
Trump has threatened to take steps to withdraw from NAFTA for more than a year, but during his first year in office he was coaxed out of taking dramatic steps by advisers like National Economic Council President Gary Cohn and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Now, both of those men have left the White House, and Trump has gravitated instead toward seeking the counsel of trade hardliners like Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, senior adviser Peter Navarro, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Trump had taken a slightly less adversarial public approach with Canada and Mexico during the initial stages of the negotiations, but that ended several months ago.
In March, Trump told a group during a St. Louis fundraiser that he simply made up statements during private trade discussions with Trudeau even though he didn’t have the facts in front of him.
Our great financial team is in China trying to negotiate a level playing field on trade! I look forward to being with President Xi in the not too distant future. We will always have a good (great) relationship!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
‘I had no idea’: Trump boasts he made up trade statistics in negotiations with Canada’s Trudeau
○ Kudlow Blames Trudeau for ‘Betrayal’ Before North Korea Talks | Bloomberg |
○ France condemns ‘fits of anger’ after Donald Trump’s G7 turnaround | DW |
American Free Press and the Mockingbird Syndrome …
○ The Subversion Of America’s Free Press By The CIA
○ I Refuse To Be A Mockingbird
