Clinton, Obama threaten to withdraw from NAFTA

Does that mean that we will be allowed to turn off the oil tap each time they start a pissing contest. Don't get me wrong, I like my American neighbour, but softwood lumber might have been solved a bit faster if we mentioned that we needed to close the pipeline for maintenance.

What pisses me off is that they say NAFTA is unfair to them, but historically NAFTA only works if Uncle Sam agrees. However anyone with a half a brain can see that most of our manufacturing jobs have been lost to places like China and India where LABOUR costs are 1/10 of what they are here and children can work instead of going to school.

Our demand for a high standard of living along with readily availible cheap products has caused our manufacturing jobs to move elsewhere. Pulling out of NAFTA is not the right answer as most of the agreement is covered by the WTA.

I wonder if that means we can withdraw from this softwood lumber agreement?

We should withdraw from softwood lumber as it isnt covered by NAFTA, and we should certainly stop sending raw logs to american mills only to by the wood back. In fact i am for a total stoppage of all unfinished wood and paper products heading south....lets make them cut down their own trees and when they run out we can charge them a tonne of money to get more!!

I was reading somewhere else that it is not a cancellation of NAFTA, but a review, to re-tweak was it not working for them. Plus if NAFTA dies -> everyone loses. The American and Canadian Dollars will be going for a dive. I don’t know how the Mexicans would be affected, but I would suspect a similar fate. It is nice to threaten to tighten the Oil or Natural gas output, but ultimately nobody wins. Between you and me, it is a political race, anything to get a vote.

I dont see how anyone can say to shut off the tap for oil and gas as that would hurt us just as much as it would them. And I agree that a tweaking of NAFTA is required but the issue being is how much do we want to bend to their demands? Personally I think we give them too much of what they want as it is how much more will they try and take?

Besides we are hurting just as much as they are with manufacturing so I dont see why they would want to punish us, except as you say to get more votes.

I don't really care what the costs are, I don't want to bend to there demands. A lot of countries face the same problem that they do, other countries work for less and jobs move to other countries. Canada faces that problem a lot with quite a bit of jobs.

Just because America has that problem doesn't mean Canada should suffer for it. They just got to deal with it like everybody else is. America think there the ruler of the world, they can do anything they wish (There government, not there country).

Also as for the oil thing, if we shut off the pipes from going to America it would hurt us but not if that was re-directed. I am sure Britain would like some Canadian oil, and other members of EU. Most of our trade can be re-directed. I would much rather that not happen, but as I said I don't want to bend down and let America do whatever they wish.

YES...because that is the real reason the US invaded Iraq...It was all about the oil..and they no longer need oil from Alberta... At least that's what the liberals will have you believe...

YES...because that is the real reason the US invaded Iraq...It was all about the oil..and they no longer need oil from Alberta... At least that's what the liberals will have you believe...

As I've said before, if the US was to go to war just for oil we'd invade Canada as Canada is our #1 source of imported oil.

I have no problem with free trade among LIKE nations, but NAFTA goes too far. For years we have successful trade with the United States but when Mexico was brought into the equation, things started to fall apart. Now we're signing deals with places like China, India, Thailand, etc putting workers in North America in direct competition with cheap foreign labour. This is simplay a nonsensical and mornonic idea dreamt up by the corporate elites and sold under the label of "global economy". In addition to cheap wages, countires like Mexico and China have virtually no laws when it comes to the environment and labour. If we're truly going to have global trade there needs to be safetly measures in place to guard against unfair labour practices, currency manipulation, and protectionism, thereby leveling the playing field.

They're gonna pull out of NAFTA? They both can go fuck themselves over. Re-tweak or not we have a say too and this is a FREE trade agreement, not a bullshit "US-Centered trade" agreement.

Hey Bart

The American Military is the #1 consumer of oil in the world, if we shut the taps off your military would grind to a screaching halt. What good would all of the best equipment be with the fuel to run it?

Having said that, things should not progress to the point that they have, re-tooling/tweaking of NAFTA wouldn't affect Canada because as things are now, as the US goes so goes Canada as our economies are almost fully integrated.

YES...because that is the real reason the US invaded Iraq...It was all about the oil..and they no longer need oil from Alberta... At least that's what the liberals will have you believe...

As I've said before, if the US was to go to war just for oil we'd invade Canada as Canada is our #1 source of imported oil.

Incorrect, Canada has a lot of Alliances. Is highly respected in the UN, and is part of NATO. America's biggest trading partner is Canada. If America were to go to war with Canada, it would end up a disaster for both countries.

Iraq is easy picking, you invaded them once and knocked out there entire army in a week. If I were to go to war for oil, I would have picked Iraq and not Canada for that very reason.

Though I am not saying America is there just for oil, even though it certonly seems that way.

Oh and I believe we are part of Common wealth, not entire sure on that one though. Canada is still a monarchy I believe, and so is Britain.

Also there is the fact that if America were ever to invade Canada, the goal would have been quite clear. That you would have been there for resources, because I highly doubt anybody would believe Canada would be supporting terrorists.

The American public consumes more energy than the military does by a long shot. Also, the military has the strategic reserve which includes untapped oilfields in California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. And if things got really bad, we'd invade Mexico and take their oil first because we don't like them anyways.