Canadian businesses are hoping U.S. negotiators will be receptive to maintaining, if not improving, the current flow of goods and workers across the border as the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement is renegotiated.
Canada wants any new agreement to include easier cross-border movement of in-demand workers, such as those in the high-tech sector.
Economist Jayson Myers, former CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters says the U.S. relies on a range of Canadian technology to support areas like infrastructure, and there is a risk the U.S. will want to change the rules of origin and content requirements, affecting tariffs and the bottom line.
Joe Udzbinac is chief operating officer of Tessonics, a Windsor, Ont.,-based developer of ultrasonic testing equipment, useful for such things as determining the strength of steel. Some of its major customers, Detroit's automakers, are just on the other side of the border with the U.S.
He said NAFTA is currently working well for the company's finances and the worst case scenario is having to pay new duties on some of the components, forcing Tessonics to increase prices.
Udzbinac said the majority of the current frustration in doing business with the U.S. comes from making service calls and coming up with all the documentation to prove his employees have work visas and have, in fact, sold the equipment in the U.S. within the timeframe of the warranty period.
The dairy sector was excluded from the original NAFTA deal in 1994, but Canada's supply management system for dairy has long been a point of contention.
The U.S. may push Canada to allow greater access to its markets for American dairy products in the NAFTA talks. But experts say there is a lot of inaccuracy in the perception of unfairness on Canada's part.
However, the U.S. dairy industry is not happy that Canadian producers get to profit from price controls, and then can sell skimmed-off diafiltered (higher protein) components for cheese-making at lower market prices, squeezing Americans out of a growing market.
