En tu idioma / In your own language

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Ap / Archivo
La Jornada Maya

Martes 17 de enero, 2017


With the Trump administration set to take office January 20, the incoming administration seems set on re-negotiating NAFTA.

Are its partners ready?

Canada has long realized that in the United States, Congress, not the executive branch, writes and passes laws. For many years, Canada’s network of consulates in the United States has worked in tandem with the Embassy in Washington to pressure US lawmakers from both ends.

At one end are their Washington offices and allied lobbyists, where the action seems to be. Congressional relations are paramount for the Embassy and much effort is devoted to communicating with lawmakers in the capital.

Indeed, earlier this month Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ambassador David MacNaughton sent a joint video to the new US Congress to introduce Canada to their agenda and underscore the benefits of this important bilateral relationship (http://globalnews.ca/news/3158572/justin-trudeau-reaches-out-to-us-congress-in-video-address/).

As both said in their video, “We’ve built an economic relationship that supports jobs in every Congressional district. We are the largest international customer for goods and services made in the USA.”

However, approaches to Congress must be matched with a dialogue with the incoming administration.

According to Canadian television network CTV, a five-hour meeting took place as recently as Tuesday January 3rd, between Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, his principal secretary Gerry Butts, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

On January 8, 2017, CTV News reported that Prime Minister Trudeau’s top advisers had met about a dozen times with President-elect Donald Trump’s most trusted officials
The meetings have focused on trade, with the intention of convincing the incoming Trump administration that any tariffs on Canadian goods would hurt the U.S. economy.

CTV News was told that, throughout these meetings, Trump's team became more receptive to Canada's case that the two economies remain integrated, that Canada is the biggest export market for 35 states, and so imposing taxes or tariffs at the border could hurt both economies.

So, Canada is working both ends of the political line – the Washington end and the local end. Canada is well aware of this ace up its sleeve, and is using it strategically. As the San Francisco Star reported on January 4, 2017, “In the run-up to the 2016 U.S election, Canadian diplomats fanned out across the country to stress that Canada is the top export destination for 35 U.S. states and that 9 million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Canada”.

The late Speaker of the US House of Representatives Tip O’Neill once said “all politics is local”, and Canada has taken this adage to heart in dealing with American legislators.

Canada’s network of consulates works daily with local business personalities, financiers, unions, business organizations, academics, journalists, and other key influencers to remind them of the importance of the Canadian connection to their local livelihoods.

Together they create and implement a web of communications tactics that meet the objectives of the overall strategy – to underscore that the bilateral relationship is a local issue for US politicians and that doing anything to tamper negatively with it could well result in negative electoral consequences for them.

This approach will create advocates for Canada both within Congress, as members evaluate how their own political futures can be affected by their decisions on these issues, and within the administration as it seeks to walk back some of the most egregious of Trump’s campaign promises. Congress can be an effective advocate for Canadian interests and the administration could well see itself forced to take this into account in developing its foreign political and trade policies.

By deciding to work with the incoming administration rather than criticize it, Mr. Trudeau may well be in a better position to deal with Trump and his cabinet on key issues. The Canadian Government has realized that both Canada and the United States want more middle-class jobs for workers who believe that they have lost out on globalization. By concentrating on common goals, and underscoring current common strengths, both leaders can create an environment in which NAFTA works for their common stated objectives.

To best defend its interests, Canada must play both sides well, balancing its approaches to the White House with those to Congress as it seeks to dilute Trump’s initial bombast with strategic alliances with all key stakeholders in Congress and in the new administration.

[i]Mérida, Yucatán[/i]
[b][email protected][/b]