OTTAWA—Under increasing pressure by the U.S. to sign a deal by Sept. 30, the prime minister and his affairs minister are defending their stance that no NAFTA deal would be better than a bad deal, as American lawmakers warn time is running out.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came under fire in the Commons over trade Tuesday amid fears he would make concessions that could hurt dairy producers and Canadian manufacturers in the bid to find common ground with the U.S. after it signed a new bilateral deal with Mexico.NDP trade critic Tracey Ramsey urged Trudeau to delay implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation free trade deal, “so Canadians can brace for a possible failed NAFTA and more U.S. tariffs.”Trudeau dismissed his critics. “The NDP don’t want to sign any trade deals. The Conservatives are willing to sign anything they can. We know that only signing good deals for Canadians is in our best interest. As with CPTPP, when it comes to NAFTA, we will sign a good deal or we will not sign.”“That’s not rhetoric,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, when asked to respond to officials in Saskatchewan and Ontario who are concerned by such statements. “We absolutely believe that no deal is better than a bad deal.”“Let me also say that any negotiator who goes into a negotiation believing that no deal is an impossibility, any negotiator who goes into a negotiation believing that he or she must get a deal at any price, that is a negotiator who will be forced to pay the maximum price for that deal,” Freeland said.However, pressure is ratcheting up including in American quarters where Canada has courted political allies.On Tuesday, a senior Republican member of Congress, House whip Steve Scalise, took a direct shot at the Canadian team.“There is growing frustration with many in Congress regarding Canada’s negotiatin ...
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