A Burnaby MP has joined an international campaign to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Peter Julian, NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, announced this week he will join politicians in the U.S. and Mexico in lobbying their governments to rebuild the agreement. The task force wants to see NAFTA renegotiated under a fair-trade model that protects workers and the environment.
Julian said middle-class Canadian families are making less than they were when NAFTA was signed, and American and Mexican families are feeling similar effects.
"Essentially, Canadians are working harder and harder, but they're getting less and less back," Julian said in an interview Monday.
In B.C., NAFTA has meant a loss of thousands of forestry jobs, which are being replaced with lower-wage service industry jobs with no pensions, Julian said, adding, "The good, family-sustaining jobs, we're losing."
In the U.S., Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have said they would renegotiate NAFTA if elected as president.
Earlier this month, Obama complained that Canadian officials had misreported details of a meeting with his senior adviser on the future of the agreement.
The leaked information, which suggests Obama isn't really interested in tearing up the agreement, has been blamed for his recent loss in the Ohio primary .
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised an investigation into the leak.
But Julian - who spoke to Obama's aides during his trip to Washington, D.C. last week - said the damage has been done.
"There is now a concern from both the Clinton and the Obama campaigns that they certainly wouldn't want to be speaking to the Harper government," Julian said.
"I think they've burned some political bridges."
Julian also said there is no evidence that Clinton and Obama aren't serious about their threats to NAFTA.
Julian said he also spoke to Michael Michaud, a congressman and founder of the Friends of Canada Caucus, who said the Harper government has expressed in private that it is also interested in renegotiating NAFTA.
"It shows you that the government has been playing a lot of games on this file," Julian added.
Julian said the task force - which also includes U.S. Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Mexican Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky - will be watching the U.S. election closely.
"We're steadily building up the base among the three countries that will build up the momentum," Julian said.
He noted that U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has indicated he wants to see NAFTA continue as is. Julian believes American voters may see his position as out of touch.
Canada, the United States and Mexico launched NAFTA in 1994, forming the world's largest free trade area.
Canadian exports to the U.S. reached $359 billion in 2006, up from just $111 billion in 1990.
Exports as a proportion of nominal gross domestic product grew from an average of 20 per cent in the 1950s through the 1970s to more than 40 per cent in NAFTA's first decade.
Members of the task force are set to meet this spring.Burnaby Now
