I predict the Trump administration is not going to achieve a major breakthrough in reforming NAFTA.
Why? Because they have little to offer Mexico and Canada.
In contrast, President Obama’s negotiating team was able to:
• Get Canada and Mexico to renegotiate NAFTA in exchange for increased access to the the Asia-Pacific Rim, the fastest-growing region in the world;
• Persuade protectionist economies to open up their agricultural, automotive, professional services, and financial sectors to foreign competition in order to provide American workers and exporters a level playing field; and
• Convince moderately authoritarian regimes to agree to liberalize their societies and “globalize” human and labor rights by outlawing human trafficking, forced and child labor and other human rights violations in exchange for favorable trade conditions, by raising environmental and labor standards; and by allowing labor unions and a free, open and unrestricted Internet — all as part of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Unfortunately, the Republican-led Congress refused to authorize the TPP, and President Trump at the beginning of his term killed what was arguably a masterful piece of diplomacy and statecraft.
And today, we see that 21 international trade deals involving major economies are being ratified or in serious negotiations – and the US, to its detriment, is a party to none of them.
The America First people seem unaware that we are in competition with other economies, and if we threaten to tear up trade deals, or deal with our trade partners dismissively or callously, they will simply find favorable trade agreements with other partners.
Related, from the Wall Street Journal: Pacific Trade Advances Without the U.S. TPP is moving ahead in ways that will cost American exporters.
Is there anything Donnie does that is NOT an unmitigated debacle?
Haven’t seen anything yet, and really don’t expect to…