WASHINGTON - U.S. legislator Michael Michaud says Canada's trade minister told him privately last month that he'd be willing to reopen NAFTA.
Michaud, a congressman from Maine who co-founded the Friends of Canada caucus, said Trade Minister David Emerson made the comment in Ottawa outside Parliament.
Emerson, he said, didn't provide details.
Michaud returned to Capitol Hill and told colleagues about it, he said Friday, but was shocked to later read about Emerson's strong stand against renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"I am very concerned about it,'' said Michaud, adding it's disturbing to have Emerson say one thing in public while taking a different tack in a private meeting.
New Democrat MP Peter Julian, who met with Michaud in Washington this week, called it "pretty appalling and irresponsible.''
NDP Leader Jack Layton raised the issue in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Friday, but Conservative House Leader Peter van Loan denied there was any doubletalk.
"That question from the leader of the NDP is totally off base and I cannot understand why he would say that the government is not strongly committed to NAFTA.''
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have threatened to pull out of the deal if it isn't renegotiated to include protections for workers and the environment.
Emerson responded by suggesting the favourable position the United States enjoys with Canadian oil exports could be on the line if they push for changes in the trade deal.
NAFTA has been at the centre of a cross-border political storm.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff reportedly said Clinton aides told Canadians to take her tough talk on the trade deal with a grain of salt.
And a leaked Canadian memo suggested an Obama adviser delivered a similar message in a meeting with Canada's consulate in Chicago.
