From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   Globe and Mail - August 5, 2015   
      
   Canada, Mexico drawn into deal-breaking auto talks in Trans-Pacific   
   negotiations   
      
      
   Japanese government learned at Pacific Rim talks that auto-content deal   
   brokered with United States had not been finalized by NAFTA partners, source   
   says   
      
   Canada and Mexico are joining forces to try to break a major logjam over   
   Japanese autos at the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, working to come up with   
   a solution that preserves their respective vehicle assemblers and parts makers   
   should a deal open    
   North America to greater Asian imports.   
      
   Ottawa and Mexico City have been drawn deeply into a contentious issue at the   
   Pacific Rim talks that held up a deal in Hawaii last week: How much of an   
   automobile must be manufactured within the 12 participating countries to avoid   
   hefty import tariffs    
   inside this proposed trade zone.   
      
   A source familiar with the negotiations said Canadian negotiators showed up at   
   the Maui talks to find that the United States had already cut a deal with   
   Japan on how much vehicle content needs to come from Trans-Pacific Partnership   
   (TPP) countries.   
      
   The Japanese are keen to draw on their existing Asian parts suppliers outside   
   the new trade zone as much as possible.   
      
   "Canada and Mexico both voiced their displeasure with being excluded from   
   [these] discussions," the source said.   
      
   Japan originally sought a content rule that allowed as little as 30 per cent   
   of a vehicle to come from TPP nations, publication Inside U.S. Trade has   
   reported, and the U.S. had wanted a higher bar of 55 per cent before   
   compromising at a lower rate.   
      
   The biggest problem for Canada, however, was proposed exemptions within the   
   formula that Washington hammered out with Tokyo - one that would have granted   
   Japan the right to use some parts that contained even less content from   
   Trans-Pacific countries," a    
   source close to the talks said.   
      
   "The makeup of the rules of origin would have had certain exemptions which   
   would have hurt the Canadian supply chain," the source said, referring to   
   parts makers in Canada that sell into the North American market.   
      
   For instance, if a part exempted from content rules was also one that was made   
   in Canada, it would mean Japan could import lower-priced parts from outside   
   the TPP region, such as Thailand, at the expense of Canadian suppliers.   
      
   Canada is, in fact, at the centre of both major obstacles to a TPP deal that   
   were cited by negotiators last Friday: the future of auto and dairy trade.     
      
   The Canadian government has so far balked at significantly opening its   
   sheltered dairy market to greater foreign imports; the U.S. is seeking new   
   customers for its milk as it anticipates a deal would mean more New Zealand   
   shipments aimed at American    
   consumers.   
      
   For its part, the Japanese government was surprised to learn in Hawaii that   
   Canada and Mexico, the U.S.'s NAFTA partners, had not been consulted on the   
   auto-content deal brokered between Tokyo and Washington.   
      
   "Japan was understandably caught off guard that a matter they felt they'd   
   finalized with the Americans had not been vetted or endorsed by all three   
   NAFTA partners," the source said.   
      
   After balking at the Japan-U.S. proposal on autos in Hawaii, Canada and Mexico   
   are now working jointly on an alternative.   
      
   Canadian negotiators met with their Japanese counterparts after talks ended in   
   Maui without a deal last Friday, the source said.   
      
   "Canadian officials have made it clear to the U.S. and Japan that the   
   Trans-Pacific outcome on autos must protect and respect the integrated   
   structure of the [North American] industry, to ensure the interests of   
   Canadian auto makers and parts makers are    
   well served."   
      
   Now, the Mexicans and Canadians are preparing their own suggestion for   
   vehicle-content rules.   
      
   "Mexico and Canada have to bring a proposal to the Japanese ... We have to   
   come forth with counterproposals that will be acceptable to all four of us,"   
   the source said, referring to Canada, the U.S., Japan and Mexico.   
      
   Japanese negotiators were ultimately upset with Washington over how it handled   
   the auto-content talks at the Trans-Pacific negotiations, the source said.    
   Japan had feared the content rules it sought were "not conditions Canada and   
   Mexico would accept ...   
    but the U.S. had played it down."   
      
   Canada is fighting at Pacific Rim-area trade talks to maintain its privileged   
   commercial relationship with the United States at the same time as it girds   
   itself for a new agreement that would grant 10 other countries even better   
   access to U.S. markets    
   than the North American free-trade agreement.   
      
   Ottawa is working to preserve a special trading arrangement that has reaped   
   big dividends for businesses and workers over the decades as the two countries   
   build everything from autos to airplanes together.   
      
   Canada is the ninth largest vehicle producer in the world and its auto sector   
   is the largest manufacturing employer in this country.   The industry,   
   including parts manufacturers, directly supports more than 550,000 jobs across   
   Canada, the Canadian    
   Vehicle Manufacturers' Association says.   
   ______________________________   
      
   '500,000 jobs' at stake in this rushed TPP agreement.  In just a single   
   industry in Canada.  Why the hell would Harper be negotiating anything like   
   this after OUR exports just took the beating of their historical lives?     
      
   We've become an import country - except for dirty resources which have been   
   damaging our land and air and water to extract for export.   
      
   We need a new leader who knows how to run this country.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)