NAFTA saved: Canada, Mexico and United States agree to keep the trilateral agreement

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and US Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Lighthizer.

After over 400 days of NAFTA renegotiation between Canada, Mexico and United States, the news is that the NAFTA will remain trilateral.
The North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation began after Trump accused Canada and Mexico of taking advantage of United States in their trade relations. President Trump, as a result, threatened to pull the United States out of the agreement and to slam Canada and Mexico with punitive tariffs. While some of the position taken by the President was rhetorical, he made good some of his threats by slapping Canada and Mexico with steel and aluminium tariffs and further threatened to tax imported Canadian made cars heavily.

News fillers coming in from Ottawa have it that Canada and United States have concluded their high-level trade talks and are ready to move beyond the negotiation stage to producing the texts of their agreements. This comes after Mexico and United States reached a gentleman's agreement on an updated NAFTA and are looking forward to publishing the texts of the agreement by September 30 to enable the outgoing president of Mexico sign it before leaving office.

The ball moved to Canada and United States to agree on certain issues, including: the Chapter 19 trade dispute settlement which United States wanted to tear up but Canada insisted on retaining(the provision allowed any of the NAFTA parties to bring trade claims before an international ad-hoc tribunal against the trade practices of another party); United States' push for more access to the Canadian dairy market which is protected by a Canadian supply management system and an assurance from United States to Canada that the Trump administration will discontinue the use of Section 232 National Security tariffs on its steels, aluminium and cars.

While we are not sure of the exact compromises reached, our source informs us that the trilateralism of NAFTA is saved. According to people briefed on the negotiations, Canada will ease protections on its dairy market and provide access that is similar to what the United States would have gained through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade treaty that President Trump withdrew from last year. United States on its part will jettison its resolve to tear the Chapter 19 dispute resolution out of the agreement but opt for a twerk instead, and also assure Canada of not imposing tariffs on Canadian made cars.

Prime Minister Trudeau is expected to make the announcement after Cabinet meeting tonight, while Trump may be making a similar announcement after a one-on-one meeting with his trade negotiation team led by US Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer.

APPARENTLY NAFTA HAS A NEW NAME: USMCA (UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA-AGREEMENT)

* While the actual text is not public, if what is thus far revealed is the position, I believe the twerk is a plus for Canada. Besides saving the intricate North American supply-chain, Canada did not give up much: its dairy industry supply-management system is still in place. It merely gave to United States what US lost after pulling out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (T.P.P). In other words, United States got no better deal than it had done under the Barack Obama T.P.P. On the other hand, car manufacturing jobs that were going to Mexico will now remain in either Canada or United States given the change in auto rules of origin. Good one for Prime Minister  Trudeau and congratulations to President Trump for the win too! Presient Enrique Pena Nieto has a legacy too!