Ontario Premier Doug Ford (right) sits with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Ontario Legislature, in Toronto on Thursday, July 5, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is “concerned” that Ottawa is mishandling trade talks with the United States and Mexico and putting partisan interests ahead of reaching a deal, according to senior sources.

The two provincial government sources who did not have clearance to speak on the record, said Premier Doug Ford’s government believes that there is a “body of evidence” that Ottawa isn’t taking trade talks with the United States seriously enough and is skeptical about whether Ottawa is acting in “good faith.”

[READ MORE: Canada unveils $2B aid package for industry, tariff target list as trade spat with U.S. escalates]

“If they were really prepared to put domestic politics and domestic political positioning behind and actually get a trade deal done, we think they’d be further along right now and the case in point is that seems to be what Mexico is doing, and that’s concerning to us,” said the first source.

Pointing out that the federal Liberals have a “political advantage” when there’s “distance” between Ottawa and Washington, the source said Ontario is “questioning” the “degree to which they’re prepared to set that aside and actually make their priority doing a deal that protects jobs.”

In a brief statement in response to the concerns, Freeland’s spokesperson Adam Austen said “we won’t respond to uninformed and anonymous sources.”

Until now, the NAFTA talks were the one high profile issue where there was no daylight between the Trudeau and Ford governments.

One of Ford’s first acts was to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and he has repeatedly pledged to stand “shoulder-t0-shoulder” with Ottawa. But the sources said developments over the summer have shifted the landscape.

The issues raising red flags with Ontario’s government include the continued sidelining of Canada in ongoing NAFTA talks between Mexico and the U.S., the lack of “serious” bilateral talks between Canada and the U.S., and the president’s tweet that Mexico and the United States are close to a deal.

Talks between Ottawa and Washington went off the rails after the June G7 meeting, which ended with Donald Trump’s advisers levelling personal attacks at Justin Trudeau. Since then, relations have been frosty between the two leaders.

The prime minister’s office says the last time the two leaders spoke about trade was on July 11. Since then, the United States and Mexico have engaged in four weeks of negotiations on NAFTA with Canada on the outside looking in.

The National Post reported last month that Canada asked to be part of the talks but was rejected.

The concerns raised by Ontario are echoed by Christopher Sands, the director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University, who characterized the state of affairs for Canada as “dire.”

“Canada cannot safeguard its interests if it’s not in the room,” he said. “That is a problem.”

The risk, according to Sands is that Canada could be presented with a “take it or leave it” deal struck between its neighbours to the south. A prospect he called “scary.”

He says Ottawa should consider an overture to the White House that would change the channel from the current discord and get Canada back at the table.

Sands said Trudeau’s government could make an unrelated decision that shows it’s onside with the United States. In essence: “going outside NAFTA is probably the way to get back into NAFTA.”

For example, he said if Canada made a decision on a fighter jet purchase that also benefitted an American company like Lockheed Martin or Boeing, that could unruffle some of the feathers in the Trump administration.

Freeland has previously downplayed the significance of Mexico and the U.S. meeting without Canada, saying those talks are focused on issues of more importance to those two countries. But Sands said given the length of the current talks its unlikely the two countries are covering “just a couple of bilateral things.”

[READ MORE: Trudeau government ‘napping on NAFTA’, says Harper]

Eric Miller, an advisor on trade negotiations and president of the Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, said it’s possible that Mexico and the U.S. could strike a bilateral deal in the next few weeks. And he said it’s “not a given” that the mandate Congress gave Trump for a trilateral deal would negate the bilateral deal.

While Mexico and the United States have fast approaching, self-imposed deadlines on the trade talks, Miller said Canada has avoided any timelines. Those differing goals, he said, create the perception in the White House that Canada dragging its feet but the reality is Ottawa has sent “many signals” that it’s ready to talk.

Miller called the relationship between Canada and the United States “pretty awful right now” but said it’s not due to “partisan incompetence.

“Where we are now is a bit of a test of nerves,” he said. The American administration expected Canada to “roll over” but instead Canada is “fighting hard for positive outcomes” and is “doing pretty well on the whole.”

Auto tariffs would be ‘devastating’: Ontario minister

Of particular concern to Ontario is the repeated threat that the U.S. will impose tariffs on the auto industry.

“It would be devastating for us,” Ontario’s Trade Minister Jim Wilson told iPolitics earlier this week.

On a trip to Washington last month Wilson said he pressed the case that tariffs in the auto sector would also be “devastating” for the United States.

“It would affect about a million Ontarians directly, it would affect about 9 million Americans,” he said.

To that end Wilson said he and the premier have made a “full court press” with their counterparts south of the border, arguing against auto tariffs and for a continued NAFTA deal. Since coming to office, the second source said Ford has spoken with 10 governors.

In spite of that, Miller said Ottawa and Ontario should be preparing for auto tariffs and the economic consequences that will come with them. He said Trump could decide to impose them within weeks and target Canada while sparing Mexico.

One of the sources said the blame for that would lie squarely with Ottawa.

“If auto tariffs come in it’s because the federal government failed in its job to protect the Canadian economy from tariffs,” they said.

But Miller said no Canadian politician would be able to stop the president from doing what he wants.

“Whether it would be the Scheer government, the Harper government, the Trudeau government or whoever; if the Trump administration is determined to impose auto tariffs there’s little to stop it,” he said. “The key issue is how do you blunt the impact on the sector.”

The sources said they’d be “happy” to see their concerns made “moot” and a deal struck.

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