Canadian PM lectures Obama on NAFTA

PM Steven Harper draws a line in the sand on NAFTA during Press Conference with Obama

Obama with the ‘Deer in the Headlights’ look after Canadian PM Steven Harper pulls him up short in the video.

Obama looks stunned at the public correction made by Canadian PM Steven Harper. A rookie mistake made by Obama, indicative of the world of self-deception in which the JR President resides; “if he thinks it– it must be” (it’s common courtesy to discuss issues with people affected by changes before you blurt out a change of plans. Does Obama think he’s just changing the color of the carpeting in the Oval office?) Video
(the best I could do with this video. Click the link to hear the PM put Obama on notice regarding NAFTA at min 1:54. The inserted picture is Obama’s reaction to the PM’s lecture..)
A few unsolicited excerpts from the Winnipeg Free Press:

Obama may not be the great free trade defender Canada needs:

“OTTAWA – Barack Obama may have once trash talked free trade, but few are expecting anything so antagonistic during his first visit to his country’s closest trading partner.

“Rather, the U.S. president’s first words on foreign soil Thursday will likely aim to smooth any ruffled feathers over his campaign rhetoric to renegotiate or kill the North American trade pact under which $1.5 billion in goods cross the border each day.”I think he will want to send a signal to Canadians that we want to make this relationship as strong as possible,” says Don Alper, director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University.

Still, it remains an open question if Obama really has seen the light or is just trying to be neighbourly, says Christopher Sands, a Canada specialist at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Canada is far from out of the woods on trade issues, he says, and may not have the great defender in the White House it needs at a time when the U.S. economic woes are flaming protectionist forces.

“Congress is the bad player, but Obama is not a strong free trader and what that means is Congress will push an America first agenda and he doesn’t have the belief system to push back strongly,” Sands explained.

“He may not be the aggressor on protectionism, but he may fail to stop something that is potentially very damaging for our allies.”

Sands says Canada is especially vulnerable because 40 per cent of the economy depends on exports to the United States.

Pre-visit signals coming from Washington suggest NAFTA is not high on the president’s agenda for his meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, although he remains committed to imbed the labour and environmental side agreements into the accord proper.

“At a moment of such global economic and financial tumult, one of the lessons from history is to avoid any signal that suggests that anybody would engage in any practices that would result in further decline in international trade,” a White House official said this week.

Harper said Thursday his message to Obama will be that while it may be useful to look for ways to make the deal work better, there is a danger in opening the trade agreement.”
WinnipegFreePress

Just a passing thought:

It couldn’t be, the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is getting rave reviews the world over and all the attention and Obama is worried people may be feeling a little bit of “buyer’s remorse”…. could it?…. For one thing, Obama was ill prepared for the topic of discussion NAFTA, failing to have the necessary legwork done and his own homework before appearing publicaly with the Canadian Prime Minister