{"id":18836,"date":"2017-11-01T18:56:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T22:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18836"},"modified":"2017-11-01T18:56:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T22:56:26","slug":"government-should-have-acted-sooner-on-nafta-says-scheer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/government-should-have-acted-sooner-on-nafta-says-scheer\/","title":{"rendered":"Government should have acted sooner on NAFTA, says Scheer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Making inroads with American companies is more valuable than \u201clecturing\u201d Donald Trump on trade issues, according to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.
\nThe Leader of the Opposition sat down with The Auroran last week on a visit to Newmarket-Aurora to discuss a number of issues facing the Government today, not the least of which is the ongoing renegotiation of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the U.S. Government.
\n\u201cIf there is one area I sympathise with the Liberal Government, it would be these trade talks because Donald Trump is approaching these in a much different fashion than previous presidents have, far more protectionist rhetoric, and I think that would be a challenge for any government of any political stripe,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, we do think the Government should have taken this more seriously earlier on and that some of the things that seem to have blindsided the government, there were signals earlier on that it was coming.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to just put pressure on and make sure that they are focused on actual market access issues and not getting sidetracked and ultimately do everything we can outside of Canada to present that united voice and make the case for Canada.\u201d
\nMr. Scheer was in Newmarket-Aurora on Friday morning to tour Newmarket\u2019s CPG Aerospace, accompanied by former Conservative MPs Lois Brown and Costas Menegakis. CPG Aerospace, recently recognized as leader by the Newmarket Chamber of Commerce, employs over 40 jobs in the area and is a success story that \u201cwe need to replicate across the country,\u201d said Scheer.
\nAerospace is just one sector, however, that can be impacted by NAFTA talks, along with the auto industry and, for Aurora, home to Magna International and a number of other auto parts companies, that is of particular concern.
\n\u201cIt is critically important that we don\u2019t allow non-tariff barriers to creep in and what has been proposed, which is basically a significant elevation in the percentage of content for automobiles to cross into the US tariff free, is very alarming and we have committed, as the Conservative Party, to work with the Government to do everything we can to make the case for Canada when we\u2019re in the U.S.,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe are holding the Liberals to account to make sure they are focused in these trade talks on actual market issues, on trade access, not to get side-tracked on other types of things that don\u2019t have to do with keeping the border open. We\u2019re also encouraging them to do more to engage US companies who have jobs in the US thanks to trade with Canada, because we believe that is more effective than lecturing Donald Trump on the benefits of a free market economy, and that is to get Americans to put pressure on their congressmen and women and senators in key districts and swing states to tell the story about how jobs can be lost in the US if that border thickens or ultimately is closed.
\n\u201c[With the] auto sector, we recognize it is hugely important and we are going to continue to stand up for it to make sure this Liberal government does everything it can to protect the jobs we have here and keep our market access.\u201d
\nNevertheless, Mr. Scheer said the Conservatives remain \u201cconcerned\u201d with the length of time it took the Government to bring forward their NAFTA policies. The U.S. Government, he said, came out with their list of nearly 100 priorities over the summer.
\nThe Leader of the Opposition\u2019s stop in Newmarket-Aurora was a visit to a riding which was, until the last Federal Election, a riding which went \u201cblue for two out of the three previous elections.
\nWhen asked how he plans on restoring some of the party\u2019s traction within the GTA, Mr. Scheer said \u201cit starts with all the seats we held up in the last election.
\n\u201cWe have got good people, good MPs who did a good job and in a lot of cases the MPs that we lost in the last election actually got more votes than they did in 2011,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was not, I believe, any reflection on the individuals themselves; it was more a wave that was coming through. What I am sensing more and more is that people who voted for Justin Trudeau the last time are realizing that his policies are actually hurting the people he claims to help. When he says he is going to help the middle class and then attacks business owners who employ 40 people here of good paying jobs, the middle class isn\u2019t better off when you have more people who own companies like this have to pay a higher tax bill, and then end up reducing their staff in order to find the money to pay the government, that doesn\u2019t help anybody.
\n\u201cMore and more people are realising\u2026 a lot of promises were made in the last election. He tapped into something in the last election but is it actually delivering anything that is improving people\u2019s lives? I think in the GTA, the more the Prime Minister makes it harder to create jobs, create opportunities, the more people realise that their financial security is at risk because of decisions this government, the more likely we\u2019re going to have a message that will resonate with people.”<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making inroads with American companies is more valuable than \u201clecturing\u201d Donald Trump on trade issues, according to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.
\nThe Leader of the Opposition sat down with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4TO","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-16 11:44:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/2017-11-02-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18836","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=18836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}