Lumber, dairy into NAFTA?

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The Trump administration is signalling an interest in making big additions to NAFTA.

Those additions could relate to softwood lumber and dairy.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Trump's point man on the upcoming negotiations, says it's precisely because these issues are not settled in NAFTA that disputes have been erupting in recent days.

Ross says all the irritants recently raised by the White House are interconnected in some way.

He says if NAFTA were functioning properly, there wouldn't have been back-to-back irritants in dairy and then softwood lumber, where U.S. tariffs of up to 24 per cent are being imposed on Canadian wood.

Justin Trudeau's federal Liberal government also wants a long-term, permanent deal on softwood lumber — indeed, that's the first thing it mentioned as a priority, the day after Trump's election.