Tag Archives: North American Free Trade Agreement
Nova Scotia fish exporters not intimidated by Trump’s anti-free trade talk, nor should they be!
The fishing industry is used to dealing with crises, whether it’s collapsing fish stocks, low catch prices or the effects of climate change. But clouds of another kind may be gathering on the horizon. Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States, lashed out at trade agreements during the election campaign, and even pledged to rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement if it wasn’t renegotiated. Even so, that doesn’t faze some people in Nova Scotia’s fishing industry — despite the fact that in 2015 the province exported $960 million worth of seafood to the U.S, according to provincial government. “He’s not going to tear that up. He’s mostly all talk,” said Dannie Hanson, vice-president of sustainability for Louisbourg Seafoods in Cape Breton. “His bark is worse than his bite.” Hanson expects Trump may try and alter some free-trade agreements rather than discard them, but he said that could end up benefiting Canada. Read the rest here 12:42
Fish plant workers: stop gutting West Coast fishery
Specifically, United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, were lobbying the parliamentary standing committee on fisheries and oceans to break what they describe as a monopoly held by Jim Pattison and his Canadian Fishing Co. (Canfisco) on fishing fleets, quotas and licences. They also want the government to restrict the practice of sending fish caught in B.C. for secondary processing to the U.S. or China. “The processing of fish that is owned by the people of Canada should benefit the people of Canada,” Arnie Nagey, a Haida citizen who worked as a millwright in Canfisco’s Prince Rupert cannery, told the committee June 7. “The boats should be owned by the people who fish them, not the company.” North coast fish plant workers want adjacency rules, which would require fish caught in Canadian waters to be processed in Canada. But that would likely trigger challenges under the North American Free Trade Agreement, said Rob Morley, Canfisco’s vice-president of product and corporate development. Read the rest here 13:37
Shrimp imports are one reason Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal shouldn’t be approved
The U.S. shrimp industry is voicing concerns about the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, saying if it were to be passed, it could weaken the ability of regulators to reject unsafe seafood imports. The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, opened tariff-free trade between Mexico, Canada and the United States, there were and still are many aspects of the agreement that are still being argued. NAFTA was signed into law in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. Now, we have the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a trade deal between the U.S. and eleven Pacific-rim nations that has been negotiated under a cloak of secrecy. Read the rest here 15:56
