Stalled trade negotiations have renewed worries over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and the impact major changes to the treaty could have on trade between the U.S. & Canada. After a break for the holidays, the NAFTA negotiations are moving to Montreal in late January. Despite repeated threats during the campaign and early in his tenure as President to withdraw from NAFTA, when Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met at the White House in February, both expressed hope that NAFTA could be renegotiated and that much of the treaty designed to eliminate taxes on goods & improve trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, could be preserved.
Over the course of several months much of that optimism has faded as the talks have stalled. That has raised concern among political & business leaders in Quebec, who this past week, invited North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to a forum in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec to get her take on the status of the NAFTA talks, and to stress how important free trade is between the U.S. and Canada, and in particular between Quebec and New York.
Watch the full 30-minute FCCQ/COREX NAFTA forum with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Moderator Frederick Gagnon, who is Director of the Center for U.S. Studies at the University of Quebec at Montreal taped Monday, November 20th in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec: here.