Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said that the uncertainty surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and potential trade war between China and the United States means that the global trading order is now facing its greatest threat since the Second World War.
“I think that in some ways this is the most fraught moment since the end of the Second World War. And that’s a big thing to say,” Minister Freeland said during a panel discussion in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Wednesday afternoon. “NAFTA is my biggest, most immediate, most constant challenge. It’s part of this bigger issue because the rules-based international order is also about rules-based international trade,” she added.
Minister Freeland said the global trading order is now facing its most challenging moment since Canada helped establish it in 1945, a development that laid the foundation for the peace and prosperity that much of the Western world enjoys today.
The comments by Minister Freeland come as the U.S. pushes for a new agreement in principle on NAFTA by next week as it swaps escalating punitive trade tariffs with China. Minister Freeland is in Washington on Thursday of this week to meet U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer as part of ongoing efforts to complete a renegotiation of NAFTA – a process that began last summer. Minister Freeland and Secretary Lighthizer met last month in Washington and the minister said they made some progress on trade issues.
Canadians have watched record gains in the stock market evaporate this week as U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that America lost its trade war with China a long time ago because of the incompetence of his political predecessors.
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