Businesses Say They Upped Their Game on NAFTA in 2017, Need to Again

When President Donald Trump decided to renegotiate NAFTA, "the threat of this agreement unraveling forced the business community to up its game," said Pete Sheffield, a lobbyist for Enfield, an oil and gas pipeline operator. David Woodruff, who represents CN, a Canadian-U.S. railway company, said that CN representatives met with more than 130 members, as they realized they " needed to be on the offense."

Is the business community as active now, in trying to get the new NAFTA ratified? Sahra English, vice president of global public policy at MasterCard, said it needs to get in gear, because time is of the essence. "There are some things holding up the united front," she said, but declined to say what those were. Although she said business still sees a risk that the U.S. will withdraw from NAFTA, she's optimistic about ratification.

Woodruff, in response to a question from International Trade Today at a Feb. 21 event hosted by the Canadian American Business Council, said one of CN's main interests is how to preserve fluidity at the border when the U.S. is emphasizing more scrutiny of cross-border shipments because of its concern about transshipment. The railway can move goods that come in from Asian manufacturers in British Columbia's Prince Rupert port in five days to Chicago. A key element of that speed, he said, is getting "through that border as quickly and safely as we can."

Woodruff said CN is working with customs authorities on both sides of the border to bolster both sides of that scale. He said they've paid for a fumigation station; bought a wide lift so a single box can be unloaded for further inspection so it doesn't stop the whole train; and arranged for an X-ray machine in Canada at Port Huron, because it's difficult to slow down in the tunnel to be screened on the Michigan side. "Really, our business is based on that, the border is not a hindrance," he said.