decisions were reached on national rather than professional grounds have
been rare.
The Current Threat to NAFTA
With the election in 2016 of U.S. President Donald Trump, it was only a
matter of time before NAFTA became a target. Donald Trump’s election
campaign was full of nationalistic rhetoric extolling the costs to the
United States from international trade, and from NAFTA in particular. In
2017, the United States forced a renegotiation of the Agreement with
Canada and Mexico. Given the importance of trade with the United
States, it is no surprise that this threat to NAFTA was taken very seriously
by the governments of Canada and Mexico.
In Canada, the prime minister and provincial premiers displayed a united
front on this issue. A coordinated effort was made to convince the U.S.
administration, as well as members of Congress and state legislators, of
the importance of Canada–U.S. trade and of the costs to both economies
that would result from disruptions in these trade flows. The integrated
nature of supply chains in several industries was also emphasized, and
how any disruption in these supply chains would raise costs for firms and
consumers in both countries. As of the fall of 2018, negotiations had
finished on a new trade agreement—the United States, Mexico, and
Canada Agreement (USMCA)—which is remarkably similar to NAFTA.
This new agreement is planned to be ratified by the three countries’
federal governments in 2019.