OTTAWA — Americans’ privileged access to Canada’s massive oil and gas reserves could be disrupted if Washington cancels the North American Free Trade Agreement as Democratic presidential candidates threaten, Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson warned.
“There’s no doubt if NAFTA were to be reopened we would want to have our list of priorities,” he said Wednesday.
“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,” he 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.”
Canada and the United States have free trade in energy because the accord effectively prohibits discriminatory export controls on oil and gas. Emerson’s comments came after Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton promised Tuesday to withdraw the United States from the 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 — the U.S., Canada and Mexico — have benefited since the deal took effect in 1994.
But Obama’s rhetoric on the subject may be just that, CTV News reported Wednesday night. Citing Canadian sources, the network said that a senior member of Obama’s campaign team called Canada’s U.S. ambassador, Michael Wilson, within the past month, warning him that Obama would be taking some “heavy swings” at NAFTA in the campaign.
“Don’t worry, … it’s just campaign rhetoric, … it’s not serious,” CTV reported the campaign official as saying.
Emerson said he’s nevertheless worried about a rising tide of protectionism in the United States. “It’s been getting more strident; it’s permeating Congress … and it’s not just the heat of the presidential campaign that is causing concern, it’s the whole congressional system.”
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