An agriculture official from Canada says trying to determine the U.S. direction for the North American Free Trade Agreement is like “following a pinball.”
Ron Bonnett, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture president, was attending when President Donald Trump spoke at the American Farm Bureau Federation convention last week. Bonnett told an Ontario, Canada-based newspaper that he is still optimistic that NAFTA will be renegotiated, but says “It’s like following a pinball to figure out exactly where it’s going,” regarding the ever-changing positions taken by Trump.
Reports from Canada last week suggested that the country was expecting Trump to withdraw from the agreement. But, at the same time, reports in the U.S. are suggesting Trump may be softening his position on NAFTA, and shifting away from the threats to withdraw. Further, the Canada farm organization reports seeing more pressure building in the U.S. from agriculture and other industries to keep and modernize the agreement.
Canada will host the sixth and potentially make-or-break round of NAFTA talks later this month in Montreal.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.