Obama Pauses NAFTA Renegotiation

After posting this on President Obama Re-Opening NAFTA, I have since read this and this about his recent trip to Canada. President Obama dropping his Fair Trade message and saying that a renegotiation of NAFTA must wait?

President Obama warned on Thursday against a "strong impulse" toward protectionism while the world suffers a global economic recession and said his election-year promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement on behalf of unions and environmentalists will have to wait.

For weeks since talks about the new stimulus package began, there has been fuss from the Canadian government around trade talks, the 'Buy America' clause and supposed 'protectionism'. For one, the 'Buy American' clause is not a display of protectionism as it is not dealing with protecting the country through high tariffs which is what protectionism is. It is multi-national companies that are making 'Buy American' to sound 'protectionist' because the clause is not working in their favor. Journalist, David Sirota points out,

[T]he corporations lobbying against Buy America are acting to defend their own business models that rely on economic policies that effectively incentivize corporations to ship jobs overseas, where they can crush unions, destroy the environment, enslave workers - and therefore lower their bottom line. Buy America laws that reward domestic businesses for staying in this country are a mortal threat to the multinational corporate lobby.

So, why the continued fuss from the Canadian government over trade talks and renegotiating NAFTA? Could it be that Canadian's don't want to see NAFTA renegotiated? Nope, looks like Canadians want reformed too. A poll conducted by Toronto Star reported that half of Canadians think that NAFTA should be renegotiated and 80% say the treaty has done very little to benefit workers. Before President Obama met with Prime Minister Harper

A coalition of major Canadian organizations urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to signal Canada's willingness to renegotiate NAFTA in talks next week with President Barack Obama.

In a letter sent in the run-up to next Thursday's first visit to Ottawa by the new president, the coalition stresses revisiting NAFTA doesn't mean scrapping it, but rather committing to a "transparent and comprehensive renegotiation."

Then some say it is a way for Canada's right wing to prevent talks about their own much needed stimulus package.

But still, President Obama is deciding to tread lightly when it comes to trade policy and is putting the renegotiation of NAFTA on the back burner. President Obama still insists that "he wants to find a way to keep his campaign pledge to toughen labor and environmental standards", but the time is not now. How do labor and Fair Trade supporters feel about this? It seems that those allies are willing to give the president more time to follow through on his promises. Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division, Lori Wallach comments,

I am happy for him to frame his way of positioning the issue any way he wants, as long as he actually delivers on the issue. If down the road Obama doesn't deliver on the policy, there will be a whole lot of really upset people.

So, we will continue to wait for President Obama to fullfill his promises and usher in a new day in trade policy that we are anxiously waiting for that values workers and the environment.

[photo: EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH]