Brian Mulroney says that Donald Trumpâs proposal to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement would push more Mexican migrants into the United States at a time when the potential U.S. president is determined to keep them out.
The former Progressive Conservative prime minister told CTVâs Question Period that Trump has âtapped into a well of unhappiness in the United States which surrounds illegal immigration.â
âBut the way you deal with that is,â he said, âis to enforce your laws of course, but also to ensure that more wealth is created south of the border.â
âThat keeps young Mexicans at home -- they donât want to go to the United States in that case.â
Mulroney said thatâs already happening, and he credits NAFTA, which he said has created âmillions and millionsâ of jobs across the three-nation bloc since he signed it in 1992.
âIronically, at this particular time in history, there are more young Mexicans staying at home than coming into the United States,â he added.
Indeed, that between 2008 and 2014 about 870,000 Mexicans legally moved to the U.S., while about 1 million Mexicans returned to Mexico. Thatâs compared to nearly three million Mexicans migrating to the U.S. between 1995 and 2000, when only about 670,000 returned.
In terms of unauthorized or illegal immigrants from Mexico, Pew estimates the total number in the U.S. fell by about one million from around 6.6 million in 2007 to about 5.6 million in 2014.
The former prime minister told Question Period that although Trumpâs anti-immigrant rhetoric âcarried him through the Republican primaries, he doesnât think âsomething that negative carries you through to the White House.â
Democrat Hillary Clinton has also talked tough about free trade -- as did President Barack Obama, who later went on to propose expanded free trade through the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Mulroney said he âcanât conceive of a situation whereby Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton or anybody else could get away with (ripping up NAFTA),â adding âCongress or the American people wouldnât allow it.â
Mulroney seemed more concerned in June, when that Trumpâs economic proposals would push the United States into a âdepression very, very quickly.â
Mulroney added that he thinks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should move âas quickly as he canâ on a free trade agreement with China.
Canada and China agreed earlier this week to a on a possible free trade deal, according to the Chinese premier.
A recent survey conducted for the found that an equal number of those polled â 46 per cent -- support and oppose a free trade agreement with China.