Essex MP Tracey Ramsey is touring American cities to speak with government and business officials in the run-up to talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Ramsey and other members of the federal Standing Committee on International Trade are on a fact-finding mission to find out what American officials would like to see changed in the trade pact, and to sell them on the benefits of a continued strong trading relationship with Canada.
Ramsey was in Detroit Monday and travels to Chicago Tuesday before meeting with federal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in Washington DC.
What has become evident so far, is everyone agrees the trade agreement needs improvement. Two major points of contention are labour and environmental protections.
"These are so incredibly weak and fit actually outside of the agreement," she says. "If we had brought those into the agreement and strengthened them, we wouldn't see the imbalance that we're seeing across the southern Right-To-Work states as well as into Mexico."
Chapter 11 provisions under NAFTA are another critical area Ramsey would like to see change. The concern is the trade liberalization trumps any domestic effort to implement regulation.
"This is the provision that has made Canada the most sued country in the world," says Ramsey.
Ramsey has consulted with American officials before. In April, the committee travelled to cities in California, Washington State and Colorado.
Last week, Ramsey, in her capacity as chair of the All-Party Steel Caucus, met with the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce to outline the steel industry's priorities in trade talks, which are expected to start in August.
While many agree the trade agreement is dated and could use stronger protections for the environment and labour, Ramsey admits isolationist rhetoric is not far from officials' minds.
"People are very worried. You know, when the U.S. pulls out of the Paris Climate Accord, this concerns us," says Ramsey referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement last week that the U.S. would no longer take part in the international agreement to lower carbon emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. "We have levels of concerns with what's happening in any NAFTA renegotiation, but again, I feel that there are opportunities there that we can strengthen it."
