Why Would Trudeau Help Trump and Pence Move a NAFTA That Would Raise Canadian Medicine Prices Instead of Waiting for U.S. Congressional Democrats to Fix Those Terms?
Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
Note: The Canadian Parliament was presented today with the revised North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), just before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visits Canada.
If Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thinks it would flatter President Donald Trump and honor visiting Vice President Mike Pence to start moving this version of NAFTA – with its Big Pharma giveaways that U.S. congressional Democrats will not enact as is – certainly Liberal MPs won’t want to support a deal that will raise Canadian medicine prices instead of waiting for Democrats to fix those terms.
Congressional Democrats, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, have made clear that the deal will not be voted on unless and until the pharma giveaways are removed so that the United States is not locked into high medicines prices and our failed system is not exported to Canada and Mexico.
It’s astonishing that Trudeau is willing to help Trump make Canadians pay higher prices for medicines to benefit U.S. pharmaceutical corporations instead of coordinating with U.S. congressional Democrats, who will not hold a U.S. vote until these terms are removed.
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