A fourth round of talks included a U.S. request for a sunset clause that would end the agreement in five years unless the three countries agreed to keep it in place, a provision that U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said would allow to kill countries if it didn`t work. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the House Ways and Means Committee because Congress would have to pass legislation that re-releases the treaty provisions if Trump tries to pull out of the pact. [136] On the other hand, Canada has long sold 99% or more of its total oil exports: it did so before the two countries concluded a free trade agreement in 1988. In other words, NAFTA does not appear to have done much to open up the U.S. market to Canadian crude oil. It was very open — Canadians were producing more. The former Canada-U.S. free trade agreement was the subject of controversy and controversy in Canada and was touted as a theme in the 1988 Canadian election. In this election, more Canadians voted for the anti-free trade parties (Liberals and New Democrats), but the split of votes between the two parties meant that the pro-free progressive Conservatives (PCs) came out of the polls with the largest number of seats and thus took power. Mulroney and the CPCs had a parliamentary majority and passed the NAFTA bills and bills passed by Canada and the United States in 1987 without any problems.

Mulroney was, however, replaced by Kim Campbell as head of the Conservatives and Prime Ministers. Campbell led the PC party in the 1993 election, where they were decimated by the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien, who campaigned on a promise to renegotiate or abolish NAFTA. Mr. Chrétien then negotiated two additional agreements with Bush, which undermined the LAC consultation process[18] and worked to ”quickly follow” the signature before the end of his term, to give up time and to hand over to new President Bill Clinton the necessary ratification and signature of the transposition law. [20] Long-standing support for free trade with Mexico. Ronald Reagan first proposed a free trade agreement between the United States.