Don't hold your breath on NAFTA
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Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Today is NAFTA deadline day, and it's down to the wire. It's the date that a deal supposedly has to be done, with or without Canada. Something's getting sent to Congress, and it's either going to be a bilateral deal with Mexico or it's going to be a full-fledged renegotiated pact including Canada.
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."— Douglas Adams, "The Salmon of Doubt"
The details: A deal is reportedly very close, but there's no indication that President Trump has any desire whatsoever to sign a deal with Canada. On the other hand, there's also no indication that there's any appetite in Congress for a bilateral deal with Mexico.
- If a US-Mexico deal gets sent to Congress today, that's not the end of the line.
- The deadline just allows the deal to be signed by outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, rather than by his populist successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
- But US-Canada negotiations will continue, in the hope that the final differences between the two sides can be bridged.
- Worth noting: The lead Canadian negotiator, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, is expected to give up her speaking slot at the UN on Monday, where she's angling for a seat on the Security Council, due to (presumptively still ongoing) NAFTA talks.
The big question: What happens if a deal with Canada can't be done? Trump wants to cripple the Canadians and kick them out of NAFTA, but he doesn't have fast-track authority to take an action that drastic.
- He'd need Congress, in other words, including representatives from northern states with deep, long-standing trade ties to Canada.
Answers on a postcard please: What's stronger, the supply chains connecting the U.S. and Canada or the apron strings connecting congressional Republicans to Trump?
