Americans would be making a mistake to reopen NAFTA: Harper

Murray Brewster, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - It would be a mistake for a future U.S. administration to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Thursday in response to election-year sabre-rattling south of the border.

"I would caution about jumping to conclusions about what a future president may do," Harper told the House Commons following suggestions the nearly 15-year-old trade pact could be up for renegotiation if the Democrats take the White House in November.

"If a future president actually did want to open up NAFTA, Mr. Speaker, which I highly doubt, then Canada would obviously have some things we would want to discuss."

In any renegotiation, Canada would have strong leverage in the privileged access the U.S. enjoys to Canadian oil supplies.

"If any American government chose to make the mistake of reopening that we would have some things we would want to talk about as well," Harper emphasized.

Both Democratic candidates for the U.S. presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have threatened to invoke the six-month termination clause in NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.

Harper suggested he took the comments with a grain of salt and noted that in Canada's 1993 federal election former prime minister Jean Chretien promised to back out of the Free Trade Agreement, signed in the late 1980s by the Tories.

Democrats have long complained about the trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, saying states such as Ohio, where the latest primary is taking place, have suffered job losses.

During a candidate's debate Tuesday, Clinton said her plan includes telling Canada and Mexico the U.S. will opt out unless the core labour and environmental standards are changed.

She said and the enforcement mechanism also needs to be enhanced.

Obama also said he would make sure the U.S. renegotiates the deal, and "use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage."

He too wants to see better labour and environmental standards.

NDP Leader Jack Layton picked up on the theme and urged Harper on Thursday to take advantage of the opening.

"Why won't the prime minister take the lead here, exercise some sovereignty and bring about some change here that would be good for workers?" he asked during question period.

Under NAFTA, Canada is prohibited from cutting off oil exports to the United States if there is a worldwide shortage or supply disruption unless supplies are also rationed to Canadian consumers by the same amount.

Most studies of the continental trade deal conclude all three countries have benefited in increased trade, but Canada and especially Mexico gained an advantage in the balance of trade with the U.S.