Trump and NAFTA II: US trade relations with Canada and Mexico

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA or NAFTA II) was initialled by the leaders of the three countries at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires on November 30, 2018. It must still be ratified by each country’s national legislature and this will not be an easy task, especially in the United States where the Democrats now control the House and will not want to allow Trump to claim any political victories in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. On the other hand, Trump has threatened to cancel NAFTA altogether if the Democrats block his deal. This presentation will discuss the evolution of NAFTA and how it has impacted the North American neighbours economically and politically. It will also examine the major challenges now facing the USMCA and North American relations in general under Justin Trudeau, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Donald Trump. Earl H. Fry is emeritus professor of political science and endowed professor of Canadian Studies at Brigham Young University. He is also former special assistant in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and former president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States. In addition, he has served as a Fulbright professor in Canada, Finland, and France. He has written extensively on North American relations at the national and subnational levels, including an article in the current issue of the London Journal of Canadian Studies, published by UCL Press, on US trade relations with Quebec. His most recent book, Revitalizing Governance, Restoring Prosperity and Restructuring Foreign Affairs: The Pathway to Renaissance America (Lexington Books, 2016), deals with the domestic and international challenges confronting the United States.