Canada cheers USMCA win as Trudeau wraps Mexico visit singing praises of free trade
Canada and Mexico basked Wednesday in the glow of a major trade win over the United States as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrapped up a trilateral summit aimed at charting a course for North American excellence.
The dispute panel's decision, telegraphed for months but only released once the summit was over, declared the American interpretation of foreign content rules for autos "inconsistent" with the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The ruling put a bow on Trudeau's final day in the bustling Mexican capital, which happened to be all about shoring up Canada's economic and diplomatic ties with Mexico, a relationship too often obscured by the country that separates them.
"We're going to look forward to working with the United States — that's what this dispute settlement process is all about," said International Trade Minister Mary Ng, who was among those travelling with Trudeau.
The USMCA, the successor to NAFTA known in Canada as CUSMA, increased the allowed "regional value content" for automotive parts to 75 per cent, up from 62 per cent — a rule designed to give all three countries a bigger piece of each other's auto manufacturing sector.
"This was all about being able to create and produce more automobile part contents in North America," Ng said.
"This panel decision is about ... the interpretation of how this was calculated, so we're pleased with the panel's finding because it is consistent with Canada's understanding, and we're going to work with the Americans."
Flavio Volpe, president of Canada's Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, cheered the decision as an affirmation of what the hard-fought concessions in the agreement were meant to represent.
"The decision is important for the substance of the matter — that the automotive rules we agreed upon after three years of hard negotiation will stand," Volpe said.
"It demonstrates that the dispute resolution mechanism of the USMCA does not bend to politics or leverage."
Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce cheered the ruling for providing a measure of certainty to the deeply integrated auto sector. The U.S. Trade Representative's office, however, did not immediately respond to media queries Wednesday.
Trudeau, who spoke before the decision was officially released, did not address it directly. But he did channel the spirit of trilateral co-operation when asked about Joe Biden's persistent protectionist streak, something that seems to vanish whenever the U.S. president finds himself on an international stage.
"There is no contradiction between looking out for the well-being of workers in their own country and working closely with friends and allies like Mexico and Canada," Trudeau said.
"If there actually was a contradiction between sticking up for America first and working with your friends, the previous president would have succeeded in scrapping NAFTA. But he didn't."
That, of course, was Donald Trump, whose fiercely protectionist approach never seemed far from Trudeau's mind throughout the three days of the summit.
On Monday, Trudeau bluntly acknowledged how close the former president came to ending the free-trade era in North America. And on Wednesday, he portrayed Canada not only as an original architect of the agreement, but also its principal guardian.
As the world struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and its sweeping, residual economic effects, he called on would-be foreign investors to take a leap of faith similar to the one the NAFTA pioneers did in the early 1990s.
"Let's think like people did back when they signed the original NAFTA," he told executives and academics earlier in the day during a keynote speech organized by Invest in Canada, a federal government offshoot aimed at drumming up foreign direct investment.
"They couldn’t know all the changes and challenges we would face. But they knew that growing our economies, and deepening our ties, would give us all the stability and certainty we needed to weather any storm."
They also knew that an integrated continental economy would bring any and all opportunities that much closer, he said — "including those they couldn’t even imagine yet."
In the dark days of the Trump era, he added, it was Canada and Mexico who ensured that North American trade lived to see another day.
"Motivated by protectionist, isolationist, nativist politics, (the Trump administration was) willing to put millions of jobs at stake in each of our countries. Our historic trade deal was in peril, so we reopened it," Trudeau said.
"In the negotiations, the U.S. repeatedly tried to play off Canada and Mexico against each other. But Canada always believed that our greatest strength was in all three parties negotiating in unison. We understood that North American free trade was about good and fair integration, across the continent."
Biden departed the summit late Tuesday, clearing the stage for Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to extol the virtues of stronger ties between their two countries.
They presided together over the signing ceremony for a bilateral declaration on Indigenous co-operation, and spent several hours meeting face to face on new ways to fortify their relationship.
Their new "Canada-Mexico Action Plan" aims to strengthen commercial and investment ties, buttress supply chains, advance gender equality and take a shared approach to Indigenous reconciliation.
"We are sister nations that are very close," López Obrador said in Spanish at the outset of the summit.
"We belong to North America, we have many things in common and, most importantly, a very good relationship of co-operation and friendship."
On Tuesday, Trudeau and Biden tied up a pair of loose ends, including a workaround for the imperilled Nexus trusted-traveller program — currently creaking under a backlog of more than 220,000 applications — and plans for the president to visit Canada in March.
But while the U.S. continued to press Canada to take a leadership role in helping to quell rampant gangs and lawlessness in Haiti, Trudeau managed all week to avoid making any firm commitments beyond expanded sanctions.
"We're all very aware that things could get worse in Haiti, and that's why Canada and partners including the United States are preparing various scenarios if it does start to get worse," Trudeau said.
"Right now, what is effective is empowerment of the Haitian National Police to solve the situation themselves, and support for the Haitian people ... while at the same time holding the political and economic class to account."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2023.
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
A father and his two children who suffered severe burns in a Springfield, Ont. house fire have undergone surgery.
Police have confirmed the body of an employee who died at a Walmart in Halifax over the weekend was found in a walk-in oven.
'We all got through it': Canadian family stuck in Cuba recalls ordeal amid massive blackout
Ellen Francis says she and her family were having a great time at one of Cuba's famously stunning beaches and exploring the popular tourist town of Varadero when the situation turned into something like a scary movie.
Cooldown expected across Canada before above-seasonal temperatures return
Canada is getting served a smorgasbord of weather this week. The West saw its first sign of winter, while the eastern half of Canada experienced summer-like temperatures on Tuesday.
Man charged after attempting to force his way into the House of Commons: police
On the tenth anniversary of the shooting on Parliament Hill, a man was arrested and charged with trespassing as he attempted to push past security guards into the House of Commons.
One dead in multistate E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounders, CDC says
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert Tuesday regarding an E. coli outbreak that it says is linked with McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
Former Conservative leader says Trudeau 'should move on' amid efforts to oust him
Former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'should move on,' as he faces growing inner-caucus turmoil.
Kevin Vickers says 'not a day that goes by' he doesn't think about Parliament Hill shooting
On the 10-year anniversary of the deadly Parliament Hill shooting, former sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers says there's 'not a day that goes by' where he doesn't think about it.
With the B.C. election too close to call, Dr. Bonnie Henry was asked Tuesday how she feels about the possibility of a party that has repeatedly called for her firing forming government.
Local Spotlight
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.
A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.
A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.
Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
Looking for a scare with good intentions this Halloween season? The ghosts and ghouls of Eganville, Ont. invite families to tour the Haunted Walk at Lekbor Manor.
The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with 'not a lot going on' is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that – and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.
A Moncton, N.B., home has been donated to the Friends of The Moncton Hospital Foundation and will be transformed into a resource hub for people living with cancer.
A Nova Scotia man crossing Canada on foot is passing through southwestern Ontario. Trevor Redmond is perhaps better known as the ‘Fellow in Yellow.’