{"id":18249,"date":"2017-09-06T15:56:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T19:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18249"},"modified":"2017-09-13T15:46:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T19:46:53","slug":"small-nafta-changes-could-have-big-local-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/small-nafta-changes-could-have-big-local-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Small NAFTA changes could have big local impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to end the bluster, get down to business, and let \u201csaner heads prevail\u201d when it comes to renegotiating NAFTA, according to Mayor Geoff Dawe.
\nThousands of jobs in Aurora are tied into the North American automotive industry, says the Mayor, and the smallest of changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement can have a big \u2013 and perhaps negative \u2013 impact in similar communities across the country.
\nTo that end, Mayor Dawe is urging communities from across Canada to send a clear message to Ottawa this fall that the \u201cautomotive sector is far too important to be made anything but a key priority in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiations.\u201d
\nCouncil will debate a motion from Mayor Dawe next Tuesday, September 12, calling on Councils across Ontario to underscore this key message in advocating for the automotive sector.
\nMayor Dawe and Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen are members of the Ontario Auto Mayors Caucus and in the last two meetings of the caucus, trade issues have been a key source of discussion.
\n\u201cThe Caucus felt it was very important, just as one voice, to reach out to the Federal Government and make sure the auto industry is being heard,\u201d says Mayor Dawe. \u201cAurora might not seem like an auto town, but we\u2019re the head office for Magna, we have Van Rob stamping and, as well as Magna\u2019s head office, we have plants and other companies like Axiom who are also in the auto industry, which represents a fair amount of jobs in Aurora.\u201d
\nIn all, Mayor Dawe estimates over 2,000 jobs in Aurora are tied into the auto industry and it is important to underscore this fact with key decision-makers.
\nThe renegotiation of NAFTA originally follows moves by U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal seen as more beneficial to American businesses. This stance towards renegotiation, however, has evolved to statements and Twitter blasts threatening to pull the United States out of the deal altogether.
\nHis latest move earned a sharp rebuke \u2013 again, over Twitter \u2013 from Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger.
\nMayor Dawe is, perhaps, more diplomatic when it comes to the online threats of the U.S. President, but he is no less concerned.
\n\u201cNAFTA is a very complex agreement and I know there have been discussions probably ever since NAFTA was implemented that there are some changes to be made,\u201d says Mayor Dawe. \u201cI think it is like any other agreement that has ever been done that, yes, there can be enhancements to it, but the challenge is to separate the bluster from the reality and I try not to bluster too much.
\n\u201cThere is always a likelihood [of the agreement being ripped up] but when you look at the number of jobs that are affected in the border states, there are a lot of Republican governors who are very concerned about this. There are substantial ramifications for the U.S. as well. Some of the talk at our meeting was President Trump has had some challenges getting much accomplished so, I guess in some respects he needs a political win and maybe this is a political win for him.\u201d
\nIn the end, Mayor Dawe says \u201cTrump tends to oversimplify everything\u201d but there is \u201cnothing in business that is simple.\u201d There are many moving pieces of the puzzle that can be impacted by renegotiation. One example is exporting electricity from Ontario and Quebec to places like New York State that are below our costs here.
\n\u201cWe hope that saner heads prevail and we get over the bluster and onto some things. \u201cIt is a dangerous game when you start doing this kind of thing. It tends to impact a lot of people. It is incumbent on anyone on this side of the table in elected office to try and work out the ramifications and the law of unintended consequences and get a sense of where that might take you. The reaction is always to jump in, beat your chest and be Superman, but that is not necessarily the best long-term solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to end the bluster, get down to business, and let \u201csaner heads prevail\u201d when it comes to renegotiating NAFTA, according to Mayor Geoff Dawe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Kl","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 17:23:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}