After U.S.-Mexico trade announcement, Washington businesses wonder about Canada

The 24 people who work for Sam Basta in Bellevue build boat lifts for lakefront properties.

“Our highest export by far is Canada,” Basta said.

That’s why the North American Free Trade Agreement has been good for Basta Boatlifts.

“Maybe NAFTA has to be rewritten, but we have to have a good working relationship,” Basta said. “It’s much easier to ship something up an interstate than it is overseas.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump announced a preliminary trade deal with Mexico that excludes Canada.

“We’re going to call it the United States-Mexico trade agreement,” Trump said. “We’ll get rid of the name NAFTA. It has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by NAFTA.”

Regarding Canada, the president said, “We’ll start negotiating with Canada relatively soon. They want to negotiate very badly.”

Robb Kerr, acting Head of Mission for the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle, told KIRO 7, “I think at this point, we’re optimistic. We see the importance of a win-win-win agreement that benefits the middle classes of all three countries as essential.”

Kerr says Washington state exports $10 billion a year in goods and services to Canada.

“We’re very interested in building on this, making NAFTA a better, modernized agreement,” Kerr said.

Basta said it’s important to have good relationships with other countries on the continent.

He’s already dealing with tariffs on imported steel and aluminum pieces, getting letters nearly daily from vendors charging higher prices.

“I think it’s getting very real, especially for smaller businesses,” Basta said. “We haven’t really raised our prices, but frankly, we can’t avoid it since all of our components are going up in price.”

By Graham Johnson, KIRO 7