home > by publication type > daily analysis > Summit Amid Trade Clouds
Email
| Prepared by: |
|---|
Canadian Prime Minister Harper, Mexican President Calderon, and President Bush met to discuss strengthening and expanding NAFTA. (AP Images/CP, Fred Chartrand, files)
Given the free-market leanings of the heads of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, North American summit meetings August 20-21 in Montebello, Quebec, were broadly billed as an opportunity to expand economic links. But the two-day talks were also dogged by new domestic doubts over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), especially in the United States, as well as concerns over immigration and border security (WSJ). The meetings opened amid anti-globalization protests (CTV), with activists expressing concerns over environmental matters like climate change and fresh water supplies. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced to U.S. President George W. Bush that Canada will withdraw its 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by February 2009 unless Harper has a parliamentary “endorsement” (Toronto Star) to maintain a troop presence there. In a joint statement concluding the talks, the leaders reported progress on public health initiatives and energy cooperation, among other projects.
Bush entered the meetings with ambitious goals of his own. He praised NAFTA (Bloomberg), pushing for provisions relating to border controls and energy to try to improve the bloc’s competitiveness with respect to China and India. In bilateral talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Bush worked to hammer out the details of a potentially sweeping aid package intended to help Mexico clamp down on its narcotics trade. Besides his Afghanistan statements, Canada’s Harper also focused his attention on asserting his country’s sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, though Canadian news sources said Harper and Bush “agreed to disagree” on the Arctic dispute. Canada and Mexico also broached bilateral concerns, with Harper signaling he hopes to hold private meetings (Globe & Mail) with Calderon to work on a plan that could bring more Mexican workers to Canada.
Despite general agreement among the summit's leaders on the benefits of trade liberalization, the meetings did not produce any significant breakthroughs on trade. Bush, Calderon, and Harper—all of whom face legislatures dominated by opposition parties—have to cope with varying degrees of domestic opposition to trade expansion. Opposition to trade liberalization runs particularly deep in the United States, with congressional Democrats increasingly wary of trade agreements, and specifically NAFTA. This Backgrounder looks at the impact of the Democratic-majority Congress on foreign policy, noting that Democrats have shown “little enthusiasm” for expanding existing trade deals or forming new ones. This attitude became more apparent in 2007 as Congress refused to renew President Bush’s trade promotion authority, effectively halting U.S. efforts to secure a multilateral trade deal through the Doha round of trade negotiations.
With influential labor union leaders eager to roll back NAFTA, North American trade has also emerged as a top issue in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections. In a rebuff to President Bush, every major Democratic candidate has expressed interest in either amending or heavily scrutinizing NAFTA (Bloomberg). A recent Foreign Affairs article notes a shift toward protectionist sentiment in the United States generally, and particularly among Democrats. The New York Times says the issue is emerging as “Democrats’ third rail.” This CFR.org Issue Tracker takes stock of the candidates’ policies toward trade.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
This report outlines the nature of the challenges in Pakistan's tribal areas, formulates strategies for addressing those challenges, and distills the strategies into realistic policy proposals worthy of consideration by the incoming administration.
This report analyzes the debate over U.S. use of assurances against torture, explaining the contexts in which they are used, how they can be conveyed, and what they can contain, and recommends a number of ways to respond to criticism so that the United States can continue using assurances.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
“The Next President:” Richard Holbrooke says the next U.S. president will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
