First of all, the notion that somehow or other NAFTA will become unimportant after TPP is fallacious.

You will have two sets of agreements. One agreement, NAFTA, will deal with a full range of issues among our three countries. You'll have another set of agreements that deal with the relationships that our countries have both among ourselves and with our Pacific partners. There will be things in TPP and a number of us have talked about them. There are issues with respect to labour, environment, and services that just weren't dealt with in NAFTA and they'll be dealt with more effectively in TPP.

First of all, the notion that somehow or other TPP, if and when it's completed, is going to supersede NAFTA and NAFTA will go out of existence and become unimportant is false.

Are we going to have a comprehensive good deal come out of TPP? I haven't been involved in the negotiations in a while and to some significant extent, at least at the moment, that rests in the hands of the United States House of Representatives. Trade promotion authority has been passed by the Senate and is now in the House of Representatives. I wish I could say otherwise, but at least, given recent history, depending on the United States Congress to act, and act wisely and precipitously, is sometimes misplaced.

I do think and certainly hope that, eventually, they will get it done. It will be a good agreement. It will be a good agreement because it is in the economic best interests of each one of the 12 TPP countries, particularly the three NAFTA countries, and because it has some very important geo-strategic importance in this so-called pivot that we're making toward Asia.

We're going to get it done. I have every reason to believe that it is going to be a good agreement. It won't be perfect; it never is, but it will get done, hopefully, by the end of this year. Once it's done, we'll focus our attention and negotiations with the EU.

As I said earlier, it's going to create a lot of jobs and a lot of economic prosperity in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Transcript

Discussions (0)