President Donald Trump’s promise to renegotiate a key trade agreement and to scuttle U.S. involvement in another raises troubling questions for U.S.-Canadian business relations, Canada’s consul general to Atlanta told state lawmakers on Tuesday.
Louise Blais, who represents Canada’s interests in the Southeast United States, spoke to the Georgia House of Representatives. She noted that her country is Georgia’s “top customer,” and she said 331,000 Georgia jobs are linked to trade and investment with Canada.
Trump's plans, she said, could impact that relationship, she said. Trump this week said he will work to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada and signed an executive order pulling the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
During his inaugural speech on Friday, Trump also said his administration's mantra will be "only America first."
Blais, however, warned those policies have consequences.
“’Buy American’ provisions drive up costs and leads to fewer U.S. construction jobs,” she said.
She urged lawmakers to “remain vigilant and make your case heard by your federal government. Protectionism has proven time and time again not to create prosperity. Trade does.”
Afterward, Blais told reporters she did not intend to be critical of Trump, but to share Canada’s view that the two countries’ economies are tied together in many important ways and that if the U.S. were to retreat from the global economy, Canada could become “collateral damage.”
“Canada is willing to talk,” she said. “But there are things that are working very well in NAFTA and we want to make sure and share that information about those things, to the benefit of the United States.”
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