MORE SHAFTA THAN LAFTA?
Internet takes up Trump’s call to rename pact
Is Canada about to sign on to SHAFTA or, maybe, LAFTA?
Donald Trump said his updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement would have to get a new name, the old one having been fatally tarnished by a “bad connotation.”
Well, the internet has responded, though perhaps not in the spirit the U.S. president intended.
From the mostly snide suggestions offered up by followers of a Washingtonbased professor of Canadian studies to a radio-station poll, Trump now has a variety of choices for replacing the NAFTA name, or at least its acronym.
The Twitter-posted proposal of Richard Miles, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, typifies the general tone. CBIATA, he suggests: Can’t Believe It’s a Trade Agreement.
The Twitter challenge to which Miles responded was issued by Chris Sands, head of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Sands said he was actually hoping to get some suggestions Trump might want to adopt, but also recognizes it was a chance to vent about a process that has put many people “on edge.”
“I think we’re all feeling exhausted … by the high pressure of this, by the negativity in a lot of ways,” Sands said. “Trump has engineered this kind (of ) psychological pressure on everybody by saying, ‘Well, I could withdraw from NAFTA or I could leave Canada out.’ It’s had an effect.”
Trump, meanwhile, may already have come up with his replacement acronym. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that he told a private meeting of supporters he wants to call it USMC, for United States Mexico Canada, though the initials are currently better known for the United States Marine Corps.
Mike Fejes, a Canadian military officer and Carleton University doctoral student, responded to Sands’ call with LAFTA … Laurentian Free Trade Agreement. “I meant Laurentia as the large continental mass that forms the ancient geological core of North America — kind of a turn-the-clock-back concept that Trump would love,” he explained in another tweet.
On an even lighter note was Laval professor Jonathan Paquin’s TTD for Trumpomania Trade Deal.
The iHeart Radio network conducted an online poll between three new names it suggested. The winner referenced the fact that the U.S. has already struck a new trade deal with Mexico, and played off a favourite Trump slogan: Make America Gringo Again (MAGA).
Democratic activist Carol York made clear on Twitter her view of Trump’s treatment of U.S. trading partners and Americans, suggesting his new tradedeal name should be called SHAFTA.