The Sale of a Country: Behind the Scenes at Canada-US Free Trade Negotiations Office

Trump vs the world: G20 summit stumbles on trade, climate. Tariff tensions shadow U. Presence of Saudi crown prince complicates G20 for Canadian government. But somewhere along the line, Canada decided to put its own name on the deal. For the record, cusma.

G20 summit stumbles on trade, climate Tariff tensions shadow U. Air passenger bill of rights a 'slap in the face': President Trump 'undermining the rule of law': No-confidence motion tabled against U.

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PM May over Brexit. And while they already had access to U. As soon as Harper landed, the Canadians called back and said they were ready to join as well. This is the geopolitical rationale for free trade , the idea that reducing barriers to commerce can create bonds of community beyond economics.

NAFTA Negotiations: Your guide to the players and priorities that matter

Of course, the main case for breaking down trade barriers is economic, the idea that even though deals like NAFTA and TPP always create winners and losers, more open competition across borders creates more winners in the long run. Nations will export the products they make best and import products others make better, while consumers and retailers will enjoy lower prices. And foreign countries might retaliate with their own tariffs on American wheat or electronics, creating a whole new round of pain. The flip side is that change is painful. GDP, but still helps explain why outsourcing has become such a dirty word.

For liberal activists who had correctly predicted that NAFTA would drain factory jobs to Mexico without significantly boosting wages on either side of the border, it was dispiriting to see a Democratic president so eager to repeat history with TPP.

Even after Mexico committed to enact reforms protecting democratic union representation and revamping its company-stooge arbitration system, the activists warned Froman that the new labor safeguards were barely more binding than the empty promises in NAFTA. They were especially furious when Mexican negotiators managed to fight off some of the restrictions that TPP imposed to ensure labor progress in Vietnam and Malaysia. For example, NAFTA focused on manufacturing and agriculture rather than service industries, which employ 4 of every 5 American workers.

So the United States led the push for TPP to knock down trade barriers in service sectors, many of them knowledge-based industries like information technology, wealth management, consulting, law and design. That was true for much of TPP. Its chapter on e-commerce and digital trade enshrined internet protections vital not only to U. The deal also restricted government subsidies and other preferences for state-owned enterprises, a much bigger problem for Mexico than the United States. Some of its negotiating partners howled when it secured a year phase-out for its truck tariffs, the longest delay in TPP.

Even some TPP critics acknowledge that the deal marked an improvement over NAFTA for labor and the environment, though they complain bitterly that the improvement was wildly insufficient. The result has been a dysfunctional dynamic between Froman and progressives, with Froman accusing union leaders and other critics of unquenchable ingratitude, while the critics accuse Froman of wanting them to shut up and be happy with crumbs. Froman griped that the left was making unrealistic demands about a give-and-take process, while the left griped that Froman was more attentive to corporate interests than to the Democratic base.

But the activists who warned the Obama team that it was misreading the politics of TPP and overestimating public tolerance for free trade look very prescient. The politics of trade haunted Democrats in Trump figured out a way to tie their traditional themes about families getting left behind to his campaign of cultural resentment, nationalism and suspicion of foreigners.

What’s in a name? Canada goes with CUSMA for new trade deal

And here we are. It was such a contentious issue that Mexico and Canada almost blew up the entire nation deal to protect their home automotive industries. NAFTA had a The goal was to make the rules tough enough to force automakers to rely mostly on North American factories rather than Chinese suppliers, but not so tough that the final products would be too expensive to compete in a global market.

It basically worked, helping to create an almost seamless North American supply chain and record sales for the Big Three automakers.

Everyone knew this would be a rough fight in TPP. Mexico and Canada wanted rules of origin even higher than In America, car companies wanted lower rules to maximize their flexibility, while unions wanted higher rules to protect American manufacturing jobs.

This all came to a boil in Maui in July , at what was supposed to be the final round of TPP talks. Every now and then, the sound of protesters outside blowing conch shells or the sight of a child in a bathing suit on the elevator would remind them that they were just a few paces from a breathtaking beach. Froman was chairing the meeting, and he kept calling for order, but Mexican officials kept yelling that the United States was selling out its neighbors to cut a greedy deal with Japan.

The talks broke down, and headlines around the world blared that TPP had stalled.

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He argues for narrowing U. The deal averted the imposition of duties and limited Mexican imports that U. Many economists view his focus on reducing trade deficits as, at best, simplistic, and at worst, a dangerous precursor to possible trade wars. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Robert Lighthizer has been down this road before.

Thanks to his work as the chief counsel to the Senate Finance Committee from to , Lighthizer is also experienced at moving deals through Congress, a key constituency due to its constitutional authority over trade. When he and Ross met with the president to try to change his mind, Perdue brought along a map showing the areas of the country that would suffer the worst job losses in agriculture and manufacturing from such a move — many of them were counties that had voted for Trump in November.

Added to pressure from the leaders of Canada and Mexico, the map was persuasive. The president decided to renegotiate rather than withdraw. Constitution gives Congress authority over international trade. In recent years, Senators and House members have effectively ceded some of that authority to the Executive branch, but that stance has begun to change with a volatile populist in the Oval Office whose globalist and isolationist wings have struggled to advance a coherent trade policy. Congress takes its oversight of the trade function extremely seriously, trade experts say, and lawmakers will likely be watching the NAFTA renegotiations very closely.

While red-state Senators are watching to ensure no ground is lost on agricultural trade, many Democrats will be focused on the labour and environment chapters. FDI slipped and companies shelved expansion plans. The peso has rebounded, investment is returning and the country even reached an agreement with the U.

NAFTA, Take Two: Your guide to who's who

Priorities include modernizing the trade deal to incorporate digital and energy issues — the latter omitted originally, but now necessary after the energy reforms of Mexico also will seek to maintain investor protections and introduce anti-graft measures. It also wants to keep trade free rather than managed and would like to keep intact Chapter 19, the dispute resolution mechanism. But his appointment stirred outrage: Videgaray made matters worse by telling a skeptical staff at the foreign relations secretariat: Videgaray, an MIT-trained economist, has earned some plaudits, though, especially for his handling of the temperamental Trump.

Pundits suggested he was picked for the U. As a sign of the importance of NAFTA negotiations — or an indication of the time it may take to reach a deal — Videgaray ruled himself out as presidential hopeful in , as he would have to exit government by the New Year to be eligible though he also sits low in the polls. Yes, he has the technical expertise, knowledge of Mexico and the U. Whereas Videgaray is overseeing the political parts of the NAFTA renegotiations, as minister of the economy, Ildefonso Guajardo, 60, is the point person for dealing with the domestic constituencies impacted by NAFTA and overseeing the Mexican negotiating team.

He now heads the trade and representation office in Washington for the Economy Secretariat.

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People familiar with Smith describe him as knowing his way around the U.