NAFTA without Canada won’t work, says union leader

'There’s still a lot of work to be done'

BY Rachel Ranosa 06 Sep. 2018

A new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that excludes Canada won’t work, according to a top union leader in the US.

Richard Trumka, president of AFL-CIO, the largest group of labour unions in the US, explained on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the economies of the US, Canada, and Mexico are “integrated”.

“It’s pretty hard to see how [NAFTA] would work without having Canada in the deal,” said Trumka.

The AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers, could not support a premature trade deal between the US and Mexico because “there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.

“We’ve been aggressively pursuing an agreement that works for the workers in all three countries, and I can say we’re not done yet,” he said.

Trumka criticised US President Donald Trump’s failure to look after the welfare of workers.

“The things that he’s done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers,” the union leader said.

Trump tweeted on Saturday there was “no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal”, calling the pact “one of the worst trade deals ever made”.