Cant he just wait it out ?
I guess if the blue wave doesn't pane out it might actually be better for Trudeau to accept NAFTA before then.
Trump's presidency is rapidly unraveling. His outsized ego and inability to listen to reason has led to this remarkable situation where he is "playing tough" with one of the few nations that the US has a trade balance/surplus. It is insanity.
He can neither sign a new trade agreement, or cancel an existing one, without congress.
Trudeau doesn't have much choice, the Canadian economy basically doesn't exist without US trade. No Canada isn't going to join the EU or anything like that, most of the Canadian economy is less than 100 miles from the border. The stuff that is further away like the tar sands is also deeply integrated with the US. NAFTA has basically turned Canada into a US state economically.
Note that the Berniecrats have long lobbied for better trade deals that emphasize protections for US workers...it will be hard for left Democrats to oppose Trump with a free-trade agenda. Mostly the Berniecrats have been silent because Trump is the first President in thirty years to rethink free trade.
Canada should be looking further south for criticism...it is Mexico where jobs like auto manufacturing will end up...Canada cannot compete with Mexico. When NAFTA was written, Mexico was not yet a realistic manufacturing center so Canada had little to worry about
In normal US history this would very much be the case. But the question is: are we still on the normal US path or are now following the Erdogan / Orban / Duda / Putin / Maduro trajectory.
There are plenty of republicans and democrats who are against canada. Especially in the important midwest region ( which won Trump the election ). Bernie Sanders was popular for being anti-NAFTA. I wouldn't confuse anti-trumpism with pro-canadianism. You can be against trump and canada.
> His outsized ego and inability to listen to reason has led to this remarkable situation where he is "playing tough" with one of the few nations that the US has a trade balance/surplus.
This is simply not true. We have had a trade deficit with canada for decades.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c1220.html
If we had a trade surplus with canada, don't you think it would be canada demanding changes to the trade deal?
> Trump's presidency is rapidly unraveling.
If that was the case, why did mexico just agree to a trade deal with Trump? Why did south korea agree to a trade deal with Trump a few months ago?
> He can neither sign a new trade agreement, or cancel an existing one, without congress.
Sure. But he has presidential powers that could prove very punitive for canada.
Our economy is 8X larger than canada and mexico combined. The US economy accounts for nearly 90% of NAFTA. Instead of being emotionally led by cable news, look at the data.
Populism seems to always be a total disaster whether it is "right" or "left."
25 year copyright extension = works withheld from public.
Biologics term = higher cost of life saving drugs = more taxes or less access.
Prevent national boundaries on citizen data = privacy, sovereignty implications.
> Limit governments’ ability to require disclosure of proprietary computer source code and algorithms, to better protect the competitiveness of digital suppliers.
Impacts gov requirements for open-source, e.g. for security and auditing in elections or national security.
And how is any of this measurable? Like "less" could be a little less or a lot.
Also, I don't see anything lowering art/music/film protection. In fact it seems the opposite, copyrights will last longer, and ISP will police content.
In the end, an agreement of that sort has to be win/win for both countries no? Otherwise why would Canada agree to it?
Hmmm. Had this been in place earlier, we might have avoided Justin Beiber? I'm sold. Let's do this.
