Canada is becoming more certain that U.S. President Donald Trump will soon announce that the U.S. will withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). That much is according to two government sources, who spoke on Wednesday to Reuters.
Negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico are scheduled to meet in late January to continue their talks in updating the treaty. Reuters’ sources said that they expect Trump to make his announcement around the same time as this meeting, which will be the sixth and second-to-last of the series.
The currencies of Canada and Mexico weakened against the U.S. dollar after the news broke, with the Canadian dollar falling to its weakest level this year at C$1.2561 to $1 USD, or 79.61 U.S. cents. The Mexican peso traded down roughly 0.6 percent at 1925 GMT.
General Motors’ CAMI Assembly Plant in Ingersoll, Ontario Canada
Trump has previously stated that he would withdraw from NAFTA unless Canada and Mexico agree to major changes in the agreement. The president also stated that the changes are necessary in order to make the treaty, which was initially established in 1994, more fair. Yet some believe that an announcement of a withdrawal would serve as a negotiating tactic for Trump in order to win concessions from Canada and Mexico. And many wonder whether the U.S. Congress would ultimately vote to approve such a move.
For their part, both Canada and Mexico have turned down most suggestions presented by the United States in reforming NAFTA.
The penultimate meeting runs January 23-28 in Montreal, and final negotiations are scheduled to conclude at the end of March.
General Motors produces a significant operates various plants across all three NAFTA countries. United States’ withdrawal from the treaty could significantly impact the automaker as well as each individual member nation both strategically and financially. For instance, the GM CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada produces the majority of Chevrolet Equinox compact crossovers for the U.S. and Canadian markets. It might be significantly impacted from a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA.
Comments
Horrible! Companies need a stable US that plans long-term.
We need a N American Union with uniform safty and environmental standards and a convertible minimum wage.
The idea that we are different than Canada is silly. We need we Marshall Plan Mexico.
United we would control massive natural resources, industrial might, human capital. This is the best strategy to challenge EU and China.
Do you have any pride at all or did you throw it away when you started believing in Socialism?
United States needs to stop trying to bring other countries along with it. Canada and Mexico need the United States! The United States doesn’t need Canada and Mexico!
The difference is that the United States can survive on its own Canada and Mexico can Not!
As for EU and China neither one of those regions would be have the economy without the United States buying power!
Nafta needs to be changed and the United States needs to set the limits and if Canada and Mexico don’t like what the United States proposes then they can go at it on their own!
A Resilient Canada will gladly move ahead working with real trading partners like Mexico/Asia/EU.
I guess you are not aware that the US and Canada will revert back to the Reagan Era US/Canadian Free Trade Agreement? Your not alone.
This is big picture stuff.
It is more about keeping Mexico viable economically and preventing them from going like Cuba, Venezuela or like like a number of Central American countries.
I hate to see the jobs go but a stronger Mexico on our boarder is more in our best interest.
You think we have boarder issues now just let them go maxist and see how many try to flee.
I am not a NAFTA. Fan but I understand why we have it. The real problem is how it was employed.
For once we agree!
I’m more concerned with Narco-Organized Crime, however.
America could do ok solo but the natural resources of Canada and Mexico would add trillions to the economy. Canadian Attic access is fantastic.
Exiting NAFTA will pull te rug out from companies tary have planned ahead, like Mazda & Ford, and harm workers, too.
China is trying to gobble with World with Silk Road. We should at least secure our back yard.
NAFTA was designed to weaken America from its beginning; no wonder the junior partners want to keep the unbalanced agreement in place.
Time to let them go on their own and see how they do, instead of continuing to permit them to keep leaching the lifeblood from America.
We don’t need “friends” like these. Marxist Mexico or not, we need to seal that southern border, and perhaps the northern as well.
I believe Canada would like the northern boarder sealed as thousands of illegal immigrants are crossing into Canada from the United States.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/as-migrants-flee-for-canada-fears-are-rising-over-the-perils-of-frigid-illegal-crossings/2017/12/15/0e572280-e006-11e7-8679-a9728984779c_story.html?utm_term=.de4d72137a10
Honestly, I can’t recognize America anymore
Thank you, NAFTA Has been B.S. period.
I wish people would not act like this is only a Mexico problem, Canada has been riding the United States coattails for decades!
It’s time to make both of those countries stand in their own
Ok, but you guys would truly be on your own:
“A withdrawal from Nafta could set the stage for a new trade pact with the three countries, or perhaps a bilateral trade deal with Mexico and an updated agreement with Canada. But following a contentious collapse of the agreement, Canada and Mexico may be in no mood to negotiate.
That could put the United States at a disadvantage.
Mexico and Canada could remain members of Nafta and continue trading on its terms. It’s important to note that the European Union has signed free trade agreements with both Mexico and Canada that lowered tariffs on most products to zero, meaning that European companies may have an edge over American competitors in those markets.
In the aftermath of Nafta, the most likely scenario is that Canada and Mexico would push ahead with trade agreements with other countries. Both are still in discussions to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multicountry trade pact that President Trump withdrew the United States from on his fourth day in office. That deal would give Canada and Mexico tariff-free access to several lucrative markets, including Japan.”
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/business/economy/what-would-happen-if-the-us-withdrew-from-nafta.html
If Mexico and Canada want to trade with other nations, NAFTA has nothing to do with that. NAFTA in no way prohibits Mexico or Canada from trading with Japan or any other nation-state. Your argument in that regard is a scare tactic at best. Let them trade with whom they will; NAFTA cares not.
It has everything to do with the enormous trade imbalance between the United States and our NAFTA partners. Fair trade is good, but a social welfare arrangement, via the enormous trade deficits harming America and otherwise disguised as a trade agreement, is not good.
There is no lack of nations wishing to enter into trade agreements with America. That cannot be said of Canada and Mexico. Our NAFTA partners need America far more than America needs them.
Yet America holds a Trade Surplus in Goods and Services with Canada to the tune of $20 billion.
Sorry, does your assertion address anything I said in particular?
Can you show a reputable, current corroboration of this and how it relates to NAFTA?
e.g. https://www.thebalance.com/trade-deficit-by-county-3306264
Trade includes goods and services, not just goods..
I hope this is reputable enough for you:
https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/canada
…and not all trade between the US and Canada falls under NAFTA, so there’s that…it’s but a portion of our overall trade with those two nations. Unfortunately for America, it is not presently beneficial to us, so the agreement will either be normalized or dissolved. To suggest that America continue to honor an agreement which is obviously drafted to harm its economic interests is immature.
I do not know, nor do I think anyone really does, what the all-in balance is between the US and Canada actually is, but the NAFTA portion, which is what this whole thread is about, is severely unbalanced toward the US.
Your original comment was just fear-mongering, trying to suggest that breaking NAFTA would leave America out in the cold, while rich Mexico and Canada will prosper with their many foreign trade partners. It’s an absurd notion.
The NAFTA trade agreement can be dropped by the US with little or no real repercussions to America; Mexico and Canada will see a different result altogether.
I would dearly like to see Mexico and Canada remain as trading partners under NAFTA’s present terms; that would be hysterical.
What I want to see is the United States pull out of nafta and watch Canada and Mexico make it on their own. Then watch those two countries come crawling back asking the United States can you please help us?
Trump is making a strategic mistake. The Canada and Mexico that entered the NAFTA are not the ones that are negotiating a new treaty. They have each made enormous gains in the global market, have advanced trade deals with other countries, gotten their legislative drivers tuned, and in the process have become very appealing to real and potential global partners. Indeed, it is a pretty good bet that if the US pulls out, Great Britain will ask for the next dance. Protectionism is a VERY dangerous game. There is no country that can survive if they do not have global partners. The fluctuation of the currency is not a sign of weakness, as much as it is people fearing what a protectionist America will do. Once America pulls out and the world sees that Canada and Mexico can still watch the sun come up in the morning the markets will rebound. I fear America, with Trump at the helm, is in for some very rough waters. It would be best for all aboard to don their life jackets.
Au contraire! The strategic error was the trading greed of Mexico and Canada.
You exaggerate the commercial worthiness of both Canada and Mexico, and you likewise erroneously diminish the commercial strength of an America whose economy, rebounding vigorously after years of destructive policies by the previous fake administration, is going to exceed all expectations in the years before us.
If they were the economic giants you portray them to be, they would be awash in global trading and a booming world economy; NAFTA does not bar that. Nothing prevents them from entering into trade agreements with Great Britain, as you suggest, or any other global nation-state of trade, even while they are members of NAFTA.
It is Mexico and Canada who need to keep a close watch on the helms of their ships-of-state.
You people are brainwashed sheep, NAFTA has been a disaster and the beginning of the destruction of OUR sovereignty in the united states, wake up see ross perot video from 1992
and he warned us about this.
WAKE UP
The U.S. must pull out of all these unfair trade agreements now.
I think people around the world assume that the United States have plenty of money and that they should help bring other countries up to their level. But they don’t realize that in order to do this the United States has to come down to their level!
The us has to give up our money in order for this to happen! The time has come to treat Canada and Mexico like they treat the us! If you can’t fill our pockets then there’s no reason to deal with you. Because the US can fill Canada and Mexico pockets full of money.