NAFTA ‘did not happen by accident,’ Mulroney says during defence of trade deal
OTTAWA — Former prime minister Brian Mulroney offered a spirited defence of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Washington on Tuesday, while warning about the potential impacts of a U.S. withdrawal from the deal.
The comments came as Mulroney appeared before the U.S. Senate committee on foreign relations, only days after the latest round of NAFTA discussions ended in Montreal with guarded optimism about the future.
Mulroney was warmly greeted by the majority of U.S. senators on the committee, who were largely united in their belief that while NAFTA needs to be modernized, the deal itself had been a boon to their country and North America.
It was also clear that many of the committee members worried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s constant threats to pull out of the trade deal, which he has called a terrible agreement for the U.S.