Canada pushes to save trade dispute panels over US objection

Country restarted talks in DC this week by trying to preserve the so-called Chapter 19 anti-dumping panels

Trade between America and Canada has been at the heart of recent disputes between the countries. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

The fate of a Nafta deal between the US and Canada could hinge on the same issue that almost killed the countries’ first trade pact a generation ago – dispute panels that the Trump administration wants to eliminate.

Canada restarted talks in Washington this week by trying to preserve the so-called Chapter 19 anti-dumping panels in the North American Free Trade Agreement, three Canadian officials familiar with talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions are private. Canada cited its ongoing disagreement with the US over allegations it dumps lumber into America as a reason to keep the panels, they said.

Dispute panels are one of Canada’s biggest sticking points left in talks to modernize the 24-year-old deal. The US and Mexico on Monday agreed on terms of their own, including changes to rules for carmakers, and Canada has rejoined face-to-face discussions to preserve Nafta as a three-country deal after sitting more than a month on the sidelines.

One US official said it’s not certain whether America will budge on its demand to end the panels. But leaders on both sides, including president Donald Trump, have expressed optimism over the general direction of talks since Canada rejoined this week.

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A breakthrough may require a trade-off between the two nations. The US wants concessions on Canada’s protected dairy market and Canada is prepared to offer some, two officials said. While other hurdles remain, an agreement where America softens its demands on dispute panels in return for access to Canada’s dairy market may resolve two of Nafta’s core remaining issues and pave the way for a deal. Another key issue is US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, though it’s unclear whether relief from those will be included.

Nafta currently contains three chapters with so-called dispute-resolution mechanisms in a range of cases, such as company complaints or anti-dumping disputes. The US wants to preserve one category, weaken a second and eliminate the third – the so-called Chapter 19 that addresses anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases. It often deals with disagreements over lumber and other forestry products, as well as pork and steel.

The US says the panel overrides the American court system and its sovereignty. Ottawa sees it as a crucial independent protection from having disputes mired in US courts.

Canadian views are mixed on how widely needed the panels are. Derek Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington who was involved in trade talks with the US a generation ago, said the provision is crucial.

“It’s the only check we have, the only brake we have on arbitrary, capricious actions by the US system,” he said in an interview. “When you’re dealing with a country 10 times your size, you don’t have a lot of leverage.”

Peter Clark, a trade consultant and president of Ottawa-based Grey, Clark, Shih & Associates, said Chapter 19 is worth a lot to Canadian exporters, but that recent trade victories through other channels “are examples of how the system can work.”

For example, the US International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, this week scrapped the Commerce Department’s duties on uncoated groundwood paper from Canada, saying the shipments don’t threaten American producers.

Canada’s foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, who is leading negotiations for her country, has declined to get into details of talks. “We’ll come back and review and just keep on working,” Ms Freeland said in Washington on Thursday. “This is a very, very intense set of conversations and I continue to feel that there is a lot of good will on all sides.”

Despite citing it in defence of Chapter 19, Canada is not seeking to resolve the softwood dispute or US tariffs on Canadian lumber shipments as part of Nafta talks this week, the Canadian officials said. The disagreement is seen as a separate issue, they said.

Canada is the world’s largest softwood lumber exporter and the US is its biggest market. The spat reignited in November 2016 when the US lumber industry filed a petition asking for duties, alleging Canadian wood is heavily subsidised and imports were harming American mills and workers. The US applied tariffs to Canadian shipments in 2017.