Looks like Canada is the poor cousin when it comes to Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) free trade talks.
"Mexico has been in formal negotiations with the U.S. and we haven't had an update from the Canadian government on the status," former Kelowna-Lake Country Conservative MP Tracy Gray told NowMedia.
"You know, they (Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney's government) are saying they are having conversations, but they haven't talked about any formal negotiations happening. In fact, I believe the last update was last year in the fall sometime and, so, a lot of Canadian businesses are justifiably wondering what's the transparency."
The deadline for an updated CUSMA is July 1.
Gray, who was Kelowna's MP 2019-25, questions if Canada can get a deal done by then considering there's no word on formal negotiations between Canada and the U.S.
Gray also sat on Kelowna city council 2014-18, owned Discover Wines stores in Kelowna and Kamloops 2003-15 and won the Royal Bank of Canada 'woman entrepreneur of the year' trophy in 2006.
She spoke with The Really Big Show hosts Jim Csek and Iain Burns about a number of topics, including CUSMA.
While CUSMA is a high-level, tri-nation free trade pact, it has repercussions for regular Canadians, British Columbians and Okanaganites.
Communities in the Southern Interior have certainly felt the economic hardships as CUSMA's predesessor (North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)) didn't cover softwood lumber leading to tariffs and customer disruption in the U.S. and contributing to mill slowdowns and closures and job losses in BC.
While Canada is technically supposed to have free trade with the U.S., nothing could be farther from the truth.
There are tariffs galore on Canadian goods and services exported to the U.S.
The 'Buy America' provisions for the U.S. government and companies to buy American goods and services whenever possible leaves Canadian companies out in the cold when it comes to procurement opportunities south of the border.
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Interestingly, Gray noted while the free trade pact is known here as Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, in the U.S. it's called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
And, in Mexico they refer to it as T-MEC.
So, clearly each of the three countries feel they are front and centre in the agreement.
Yet, in reality, it's likely the U.S. that's steering the talks.
"It's fair to ask: Where are we as a country? Are formal negotiations underway? What are the priorities? (Canadian businesses want and deserve) some predictability going forward," said Gray.
