During the past year, NAFTA has been encountering ill winds and rough seas. The ill winds come from the Blow Hard-in-Chief. Peter Clark writes:
The Prime Minister has used his personal relationship with Trump to avoid crises. Now Canada is deemed “spoiled” and “difficult”. Trudeau is doing what a responsible leader needs to do when faced with madman tactics and threats to Canada and Canadians by trying to defuse the threat. But his neighbour will not talk to him.
The man who claims he knows all there is to know about the art of the deal has proved to be a deal breaker, not a deal maker.
Chrystia Freeland has shuttled back and forth between Washington and Ottawa. She has had a thankless task:
I don’t envy Freeland. Imagine negotiating with a four-year-old, with the power and leverage of the President of the United States. Add to that a counterpart in Lighthizer who is impossible to satisfy. Freeland and Lighthizer talked face to face for two hours Tuesday, but neither was all that interested in listening.
Bashing Mexico and NAFTA worked well for Trump in the primaries and his election. It’s a safe bet that he will keep to his whipping-boy strategy for the mid-terms and tie Canada to the post as well.
Canada has worked hard to garner support from state governors and individual members of Congress. But it's clear Trump doesn't listen to any of those folks. Television is the source of Trump's information. Briefing notes be damned.
NAFTA may well be damned. The winds and seas could get a lot rougher.
Image: Alternet
6 comments:
Freedland is a neoliberal who wants to export Canada's auto-industry to Mexico and 4.3T barrels of bitumen to China, which has no carbon tax or other GHG regulations.
It's good that outright corruption is finally a thankless task. Let's hope this kind of crime against society no longer pays either.
-True Progressive
Personally, I have never liked any of the "Free Trade" deals. They all seek to lower standards for labour, the environment, health, etc. and especially taxes. Good international deals would work to raise standards.
After the Kinder-Morgan decision, I can understand your take, TP. But the real irony behind today's decision to place tariffs on metals is that it will make these materials more expensive in the United States. Good trade agreements should be win-win agreements. If Trump walks away from NAFTA, the effect will be the same as his decision to raise tariffs. He'll shoot his country in the foot.
Give Freeland a little bit of credit. She's trying hard to mitigate the damage -- particularly to Canada. But, when you're dealing with Trump, that's a difficult task.
I agree, Toby. As I suggested to TP, good agreements should be win-win agreements. So, in that spirit, renegotiating NAFTA was a good idea. The problem is that, for Trump, trade is a one way street: I win, you lose.
There's no win-win at the end of the process.
Trump's real skill when it comes to deal making is to screw whomever he's dealing with, especially when it's the sort of people who don't pack guns or vials of polonium. His contractors, for example, regularly complain that Trump stiffs them on the final payment or two for the work done. They can sue him but he'll tie them up in court until they bleed and if they then walk away from their money he makes sure they'll never work in that market again.
Trump doesn't think a deal is fair unless it's patently unfair for someone else. He sees winning as the other guy's losing. Justin thought he had the better of Trump or was his match at least but that was Trump flattering Trudeau.
The guy is sociopathic as hell and we refuse to protect ourselves accordingly. I don't know if you saw Chretien's smug remarks on CBC's web site but he thinks Trump is nothing to worry about. Shows how remarkably sanguine a person can get after being out of office for 15 years.
I'm surprised by Chretien's opinion of Trump, Mound. Chretien used to call himself a street fighter. Clearly, he's been off the streets for awhile.
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