Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, right, listens to a question from a reporter during a break in trade talk negotiations at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press
With the ongoing NAFTA negotiations dominating news coverage this week, today’s From the comments attempts to highlight where Globe readers stand on this issue.
From NAFTA talks sour, raising doubts of deal by Trump-imposed deadline by Robert Fife and Adrian Morrow
Stop this nonsense over this totally arbitrary “deadline”. This agreement supposedly will be for 16 years so Canada needs to get this as right as possible. If the Americans demand eliminating Ch 19 then we need to walk for now. The world will not end tomorrow and congress will get involved. Let’s not cave. – Dch1951
The deadline is not so arbitrary. It recognizes political realities in both Mexico and the US. If we lose this window you will have different players in place there will be no end in sight. So far as relying on Congress is concerned, there are provisions which Canada has included which are opposed by some in Congress. If we wait for Congress to oppose the President we will have to cope with a tariff on autos until (if) Congress beats down the President. Very high risk. – waynes2
In response to waynes2
That’s one possible scenario. Another is that any delay that takes us past the midterms results in a lame duck president and preservation of the current NAFTA deal, which has not been cancelled.
Negotiations over a new deal can then take as long as is needed and we need only concern ourselves with unilateral action by Trump for another couple of years. A tax on cars as he has suggested would be very painful for his base and unlikely to be maintained, as every dose of such pain brings the GOP closer to oblivion.
And in any event, you cannot negotiate with Trump under his terms. You might as well hand him the keys to the country and tell him to help himself. Yes, we will feel pain if we don’t cave. We will feel vastly more and for much longer if we do.
I don’t care about dairy, but a dispute resolution process with teeth is an absolute must, especially as our ally threatens to leave the WTO. – MullinPaul
There is no point of maintaining NAFTA without Chapter 19. This is the measure the keeps the barbarians at the gate, the carpetbaggers who would plunder and leave ruin in their wake. It is about fairness and allows small and medium economies to compete. Economies of scale and all that. Canada should stand firm. In a worse case scenario, we can always develop trade zones with many of the States. – moon howler
Of course Trump wants to squash Chapter 19 - this is a guy infamous for reneging on contracts and stiffing suppliers and has no history of abiding by agreements.
This deadline is Trump’s deadline because he knows that his political power may be weakened and that means the risk of starting from scratch with a new landscape in Congress and a New Mexican President who might “out-populist” Trump in his dealings with the US.
If the US won’t bend on Chapter 19 that is a good indication that they will not abide by any rules they don’t like. Canada should NOT bend here. – Not the Alliance
If the US (Trump and Lighthizer) are going to vandalize NAFTA, sabotage the negotiatings, and obstruct progress, then we just can’t make a deal with them.
Simple as that. We have to anticipate further bullying attempts and plan our way forward, and accept that Trump is going to try and make things as unpleasant as he can for us.
We shouldn’t blame our people. They’ve done their best. All the blame lies with Trump and the people in the US and Canada that support him. – Black Swan
Comment of the week
Math problems are seen in this file photo. (J.P. Moczulski for The Globe and Mail)J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
From Falling Ontario test scores add to nation math debate by Caroline Alphonso
Sweeping conclusions are being drawn using co-relational data. E.g. “new” math curriculum introduced “caused” declining math scores. While this could be, there has been a leap to conclude it must be the teachers' fault. There have been other educational and societal changes during this time, likely contributing. It would take an essay to describe and reference all that has happened in the past decade. Firstly, textbooks were deemed “passe” (saving money could have been the goal). Having worked with student textbooks and workbooks I can tell you they were superior to the current system where the teacher must pull all of the materials together from “somewhere” to meet curriculum expectations. They also included a useful problem solving component and workbooks provided practice. The smartphone came into being as well as other advances in gaming. Attention spans of students decreased and distraction of parents has increased. There is a literature showing parents lack of eye contact and attention to babies/children is changing children’s neurological development. Add behaviour problems, few consequences, hot/crowded classrooms, poor nutrition, ESL, and you can see it is not that simple. – MzZoe
From the Comments is a new feature designed to highlight interesting and thoughtful contributions from our readers. Some comments have been edited for clarity. Everyone can read the comments but only subscribers will be able to contribute. Thank you to everyone furthering debate across our site.