By Alice McFarlane

Trade Agreements

Canadian agriculture continues to wait for ratification of USMCA

Feb 6, 2019 | 2:19 PM

The month long United States government shutdown has pushed back the introduction of legislation to implement the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Canadian Global Affairs vice-president Colin Robertson said the United States remains the biggest question mark in terms of ratification.

“There’s no doubt that the government shutdown had an impact because the people that would have been drafting implementing legislation in the United States were either on furlough or if they were at work were probably involved in what is now a fairly tense China-U.S. situation around trade,” Robertson said.

The time table for introduction of the trade deal was March or April but now will likely be later in the summer.

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“Our sense is, and we don’t know this, but our sense is that the month long shutdown which put a lot of government workers on furlough from the Commerce Department and some from the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office that that legislation is probably still being drafted,” Robertson said. “Last week senior members from China were in Washington with members of the administration but, as the President tweeted in remarks later, it would probably be up to himself and President Xi Jinping to sort out the U.S. China trade dispute which is overshadowing most other issues on the trade file right now and keeping the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer occupied.”

Robertson said it’s important to note the North American Free Trade Agreement remains in effect and Canada is working under the provision of the agreement that was signed back in 1994.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca