Obama risks US energy supplies -- Revisiting NAFTA threatens oil sales to US: Canada

[Murrican]

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b274d1b9-e8d1-4f6e-a4fd-a5dd793ad0b8

Canada biggest supplier of oil, natural gas, electricity to US -- Obama administration signals about re-negotiating NAFTA risks US energy supply -- Canada has plenty of other markets to which to sell energy, including Japan, China, and India

Revisiting NAFTA threatens oil sales to U.S.: Cannon

Canada would be forced to find new energy markets, minister says

Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service
Published: Saturday, November 15, 2008

Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement would have "consequences," Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon warned yesterday, including finding markets other than the United States for Canadian oil.

Mr. Cannon said he agreed with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's assessment earlier this week when he suggested to business leaders that he was not reassured on the future of NAFTA after a meeting with advisers to U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

During the presidential primaries, Mr. Obama raised the possibility of renegotiating the three-way trade agreement, which also includes Mexico, in order to protect U.S. jobs. Until the Obama team firmly discounts that possibility, Canada's Conservative government continues to send strong messages defending the treaty.

"Clearly I share Minister Flaherty's views on that," Mr. Cannon said in an interview. "Canada is an energy superpower. We produce oil. If, at the end of the day, that is not going to find a way down to the American market, we have to be able to sell it elsewhere. There are consequences to this, on both sides." Mr. Cannon added: "We don't take it lightly."

Mr. Cannon said he expected the Harper Conservatives and the Obama Democrats to find common ground on the issue, as Canada pursues its own environmental agenda with Washington in the coming months. He also said he does not expect "ideological" differences to complicate relations.

"This agreement has been a darn good agreement for Canada and the United States," he said. "I'm sure that his (Obama's) officials view this NAFTA agreement pretty well in the same light as we do."

The remarks by Mr. Cannon and Mr. Flaherty follow mounting warnings to the incoming Democratic-led U.S. Congress, as well as the future Obama administration, to studiously avoid protectionist measures in the face of growing economic turmoil.

[Murrican]

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ae15ed12-326f-4187-8cd1-85ceef892b9a

Obama not likely to renegotiate NAFTA, ex-diplomat says

Peter O'Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service

Thursday, November 13, 2008

PARIS - President-elect Barack Obama will likely find a way to back off his election campaign promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a former Canadian ambassador to both the U.S. and France said here Thursday.

"Clearly he has made the threat during the campaign," Raymond Chretien told Canwest News Service after a speech to the France-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

"But once in power in January, once apprised of what is at stake here, I doubt very much that he will want to reopen that."

Chretien, nephew of former prime minister Jean Chretien, seconded the view of a Belgium-based analyst who said earlier this week that a NAFTA renegotiation is unlikely.

Both Chretien and Fredrick Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy, said opening up NAFTA will be seen as too risky in Washington because of fears the U.S. could lose its access to Canadian energy guaranteed under the continental accord.

"I think that when apprised of their dependency on Canada's imports, not only of oil but of gas, any president would think twice about reopening NAFTA," said Chretien, who starting serving as Canadian ambassador to Washington when the trade deal took effect in 1994.

He noted that Bill Clinton opposed North American free trade before his election in 1992. He said the Obama administration could perhaps be accommodated through a side letter signed by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico relating to labour and environmental standards.