Trudeau Faces Pushback Against Swift Ratification of USMCA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must deal with opposition to the proposed USMCA. (Flickr)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party tabled legislation to begin ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on January 29. However, opposition parties have expressed interest in slowing the ratification process and more closely investigating some aspects of the deal.

Canada is the only signatory to USMCA yet to ratify the free trade agreement, and the process may be slower than Trudeau would like. Despite the Liberal, Conservative, NDP, and Green parties supporting the tabling of the bill within parliament, Leader of the Official Opposition Andrew Scheer of the Conservatives strongly criticized the deal and has expressed interest in a closer review of the agreement. The Conservatives have specifically focused on the potential adverse effects of the USMCA on Canada’s aluminum and dairy sectors. 

“Will the Prime Minister finally admit that what he came back with from Washington was a weaker NAFTA than what he had when he first went down there?” Scheer asked Trudeau in early December.

Conservatives and members of the Quebecer Bloc are concerned that the USMCA would allow for foreign aluminum to unfairly compete with Canadian aluminum. Canada is by far the largest aluminum producer in North America, and both the United States and Canada pushed during the negotiation of the USMCA for a provision requiring aluminum to be “melted and poured” in North America. Steel is already subject to this provision under the agreement; however, Mexico does not have the capacity to smelt aluminum and refused to subject aluminum to the restriction. The USMCA would allow Mexico to import cheaper foreign aluminum that Conservatives argue would unfairly compete with Canadian aluminum in the North American market.

The USMCA also allows U.S. dairy farmers access to 3.59 percent of Canada’s historically protected $16 billion dairy market. Opposition members of parliament perceived this as a major concession. The Canadian government said it will spend $1.31 billion over eight years to compensate Canadian dairy farmers for their losses.

The Conservatives are not the only party concerned with the trade deal though, and Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party, said he has concerns about the provisions in the USMCA to protect workers and the environment as well as their enforceability. 

“I want to make sure we do an exhaustive debate, a study in committee, to make sure that is a good deal for Canadians,” Singh said.

With the Quebecer Bloc having promised to vote against the treaty and the New Democratic Party and Conservatives having expressed an interest in a longer and more intensive examination before ratification, Trudeau’s minority government will be unlikely to get the swift ratification they have said they want. 

“When will the prime minister realize that here at home he doesn’t have control of Parliament and he needs the support of opposition before finalizing major agreements?” Conservative legislator Leona Alleslev asked.