Premier Doug Ford is heading to Washington on Wednesday to talk trade.

He and Economic Development and Trade Minister Jim Wilson will meet with negotiators to get an update on discussions to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement, as a Sept. 30 deadline looms.

“I’ll be accompanying the premier to Washington to talk to our negotiating team — Canada’s negotiating team first-hand and Ontario’s people that are there, meet with (David MacNaughton) Canadian ambassador to the U.S., and have a face-to-face,” Wilson told reporters Monday at Queen’s Park.

“We haven’t done that; we are usually over the phone and we think it’s time that we went down there and once again stand up for Ontario workers, Ontario jobs — protect the jobs that we have and grow jobs in the future.”

To date, NAFTA negotiations have been rocky, with key areas of disagreement remaining, in particular on access to Canada’s dairy and cultural markets, as well as how to resolve trade disputes.

The trip will take Ford and Wilson away from the province at a time when the government has been focused on its fight to cut Toronto city council.

“We’re serious about helping the feds as best we can,” said Wilson, the MPP for Simcoe-Grey, warning that “a million jobs overnight would be lost if we lost NAFTA. Nine million jobs in the States if you consider retaliatory tariffs that might go in.”

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said, “Everybody is really quite concerned about what’s happening with NAFTA … I agree that the best thing to do is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the federal government, and I hope that’s what’s happening here.”

Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough-Guildwood) said “it’s about time” Ford turned his attention to something other than Toronto council.

“We just saw the results coming out for August in terms of the job numbers — 80,000 jobs being lost in Ontario. So it’s about time that they focus on Ontario’s economy. They inherited an economy that was one of the strongest in the G7. We had a 20-year low unemployment rate in this province and things are starting to not look as good.”

Green Party Leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner said, “Here we are debating the premier’s personal grudge match against the City of Toronto — the premier ... should be doing what he can to negotiate a NAFTA that is beneficial to the people of Ontario.”

Ford has spoken with about 10 U.S. governors since taking office at the end of June. In her last year in office, former premier Kathleen Wynne met with about 37 to stress the importance of trade ties.

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Every year, about $400 billion worth of trade is conducted between Ontario and the U.S.

Ontario is the biggest customer of more than half of all U.S. states.

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