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A few canadian news comments on NAFTA 2.0
Judging by the initial reaction, a setback for freer trade on the continent will be judged a “win” for all involved: Trump gets his first “major” trade deal just in time for the midterm elections; Mexico’s outgoing president, Enrique Peña Nieto, will leave office with significant accomplishment of his own, and the president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will avoid beginning his term on Dec. 1 with the headache of a trilateral trade negotiation; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will be able to say that he successfully defended his country from an economic calamity.
Trudeau did well to avoid a major disruption in trade rules that would have hurt investment and further monopolized the time of the trade professionals at Global Affairs Canada. The latter is important, because if Trudeau is serious about freer trade, he will need those men and women to pursue that goal somewhere other than North America.
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