By EVAN DUGGAN
VANCOUVER, Aug 16 (Xinhua) -- The first round of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks got off to a rocky start in Washington Wednesday with the U.S.'s chief negotiator calling for a full overhaul of the 23-year-old pact, instead of simple tweaks.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, trade experts cautioned that NAFTA talks could last many months or even years, as Canada, Mexico and the U.S. iron out new provisions and chapters of the treaty, which U.S. President Donald Trump has called the worst trade deal ever signed.
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland remarked Wednesday that Canada aims to maintain NAFTA as an engine for economic growth and jobs. She said her team of negotiators aim to cut red tape for business, make it easier for professionals to work North America-wide and to create a pact that boosts rights for labor, women and indigenous people, while also doing more to protect the environment.
"I want to be clear that (Trump) is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and a couple of updated chapters," U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said during opening remarks in Washington. "We feel that NAFTA has fundamentally failed many, many Americans and needs major improvement."
Two trade and economy experts at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver said in separate interview with Xinhua Wednesday that the tough talk from the U.S. signals what will likely be combative and drawn-out negotiation, but both believed NAFTA will remain in place once the dust settles.
"This could really stretch out, and the U.S. wants to address trade imbalances, and that's going to be something that's unprecedented," said John Ries, an international trade expert at UBC, referring to Trump's complaints over trade deficits with Mexico and Canada.
"I think (NAFTA talks) will stretch out for a long time, and maybe the year," he said, noting that Trump's complaints over trade deficits cut deep into the nature of free trade pacts.
He said Canada's desire to protect its supply managed dairy and poultry industries will also be a major sticking point.
"I think (the talks) could go off the rails, but I don't think that would mean no NAFTA agreement," Ries said. "I think the status quo will prevail."
If the U.S. decides to withdraw from NAFTA they are required to provide six month's notice, he said. "That has been threatened but not executed. Whether or not Trump can withdraw without congressional support is an unclear issue. We could have legal wrangling and the treaty could stay in place for many years to come."
He told Xinhua that the NAFTA talks could outlast Trump's own presidency.
"I just don't think that Trump has the political capital to do something that radical," Ries said. "I'm not that pessimistic. It is my speculation and hope that it will be business as usual and we will have a pretty open trading environment."
Fellow UBC trade expert James Brander said much won't be done in the first round of talks in Washington.
He told Xinhua that "I'm expecting these first four days to just mainly deal with getting the proposals on the table in detail,"
"Donald Trump is impatient, but trade negotiations always take a long time," he said.
Brander is equally optimistic that a form of NAFTA will remain in place whatever the outcome of these talks may be.
"Today, just starting out, the United States negotiations have taken a very strong - almost pugnacious position - which is not positive," he said. "It's a very bad start," he said. "So, what if it does go off the rails?"
He said in that case, many layers of legal and constitutional questions remain in the U.S. over whether Trump could pull the U.S. out of NAFTA without the support of Congress.
"I think that probably the dominant position on that is that the president cannot do that," Brander said. "That would require congressional approval and there is no way that congress would approve that. Not even a Republican congress."
