US Must Make 'Serious Moves' to Reach Deal With Canada, Canadian Union Official Says

The president of Canada’s largest union said that while dairy and dispute settlement have not yet been resolved, the biggest issue preventing an agreement on NAFTA is the specter of Section 232 tariffs on autos. "If anything is to hold this deal up, it’s going to be the fact that Donald Trump has imposed 232 tariffs,” Jerry Dias, president of Unifor, said Sept. 20. “Why would Canada sign a trade agreement with the United States dealing with all the important issues, and then have Donald Trump impose a 25 percent tariff on automobiles? Why would we sign an agreement that leaves us exposed?”

He said that the U.S. is starting to recognize they will have to make “some serious moves” to reach an agreement, and that staff for both sides negotiated all night for the last two nights. “Don’t take that as we’re very close to a deal, because we’re not,” he said to reporters outside the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, while Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was inside. “Do I believe it’s going to get done this week? The answer is no. I think we’re in a better position today than we were two weeks ago.”

Dias, in response to a question from International Trade Today, said a quota for autos and auto parts, which reports say the Mexicans agreed to, is not something autoworkers will accept. “It doesn’t make any sense for us to agree to quotas on exported vehicles,” he said, adding that anything other than a total elimination of steel and aluminum tariffs will also make it very difficult to close a deal. “As long as that stuff’s hanging out there, it really clouds our ability to get a deal done,” he said.

Still, there are also unresolved issues inside NAFTA, even beyond a cultural exemption, dairy and a chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism, he said. He said a lot of Canadian retailers are really pushing back against a higher de minimis. When asked if there’s an acceptable de minimis level above $20 Canadian, the current limit, and $100, the new Mexican level, he said, “Well, they’re bargaining. So who knows where that’s going to end up?"