{"id":206840,"date":"2019-03-26T02:08:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T06:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=206840"},"modified":"2019-03-26T02:08:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T06:08:50","slug":"freeland-says-tariffs-raise-serious-questions-about-nafta-after-meetings-in-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/26\/freeland-says-tariffs-raise-serious-questions-about-nafta-after-meetings-in-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeland says tariffs raise ‘serious questions’ about NAFTA after meetings in DC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is\nkeeping up the pressure on the Trump administration, warning that Canada’s support for the updated North American trade pact\nmay hinge on the U.S. lifting tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freeland, who met Monday in Washington with U.S. Trade\nRepresentative Robert Lighthizer, says many Canadians have serious questions\nabout ratifying the new NAFTA as long as those tariffs are still in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Freeland, who met Monday in Washington with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, says many Canadians have serious questions about ratifying the new NAFTA as long as those tariffs are still in place. (File Photo<\/a>: @cafreeland\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Freeland says she told President Donald Trump’s trade czar\nthat Canadians want the U.S. tariffs and Canada’s retaliatory measures removed\nbefore the countries move forward with the approval of the agreement, also\nknown as the USMCA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being ratified in Mexico and Canada, the\ndeal must make its way through Congress as part of a process that experts\npredict will take until late summer to run its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freeland was in the U.S. capital to meet with Lighthizer as\nwell as other lawmakers, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Oregon Rep. Earl\nBlumenauer, the new chair of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She calls the tariffs \u2014 which the U.S. justifies on national\nsecurity grounds \u2014 illegal and absurd, saying they make even less sense now\nthat the new NAFTA agreement has been signed by all three countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI also made the point to Ambassador Lighthizer that the existence\nof these tariffs, for many Canadians, raises some serious questions about NAFTA\nratification,\u201d Freeland said following Monday’s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have heard from a lot of Canadians that they would be\nreally troubled by Canada moving forward with ratification while the\ntariffs are still in place. I think to Canadians it just doesn’t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is keeping up the pressure on the Trump administration, warning that Canada’s support for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":204255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206847,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206840\/revisions\/206847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}