More NAFTA backlash…
Canada Plays the Oil Card.
Canada threatened to disrupt America’s priveleged access to Canada’s massive oil and gas reserves after Hillary and Obama vowed to withdraw the US from NAFTA.
The Globe and Mail reported:
Americans’ privileged access to Canada’s massive oil and gas reserves could be disrupted if Washington cancels the NAFTA accord as Democratic presidential candidates threaten, Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson warned yesterday.
“There’s no doubt if NAFTA were to be reopened we would want to have our list of priorities,” he said.
“Knowledgeable observers would have to take note of the fact that we are the largest supplier of energy to the United States, and NAFTA has been kind of a foundation of integrating the North American energy market,” Mr. Emerson said.
“When people get below the rhetoric and start picking away at the details, you are going to find that it’s not such a slam-dunk proposition to go from the rhetoric to a meaningful improvement,” he said.
Canada and the United States have free trade in energy because the accord effectively prohibits discriminatory export controls on oil and gas. Mr. Emerson’s comments come after Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton promised Tuesday to withdraw the United States from the North American free-trade agreement after taking office, unless the deal was completely renegotiated.
The pact has become a target for criticism by U.S. unions, which blame it for the disappearance of thousands of jobs, but studies have repeatedly shown that trade has thrived and all three NAFTA signatories have benefited since the deal took effect in 1994.
Maybe this explains why after blasting NAFTA and Free Trade continuously over the past week, a senior member of Obama’s campaign team told a Canadian official not to take his criticisms seriously.
Previously:
HOPE Loses to TRUTH in Obama’s NAFTA Flap
Hat Tip Dan
