Podcast: Taking Apart Trump’s “US-Mexican Trade Agreement”

I spoke with Monocle 24’s The Briefing on Tuesday about Donald Trump’s tactics in proclaiming a “US-Mexican Trade Agreement”, falsely implying that it will reply the North American Free Trade Agreement — but putting pressure on Canada to accede to US demands and hand Trump a victory before November’s Congressional elections.

We got a lot of smoke and mirrors here. This isn’t an overhaul of NAFTA but is relatively minor revisions, for example on the auto industry and concerning intellectual property, as well as a 16-year sunset clause.

The second act of the ringmaster trying to run the circus is Trump renaming this agreement and writing Canada out. Well, you can’t do that.

So the Trump Administration’s play is divide and rule.

See also TrumpWatch, Day 585: Trump Announces Trade Deal With Mexico — But What About Canada?