Goodbye NAFTA, hello NATPA

Let’s get right to the conclusion: By the time the official Trump and Trudeau trade dealers get through their continental negotiations over NAFTA, the new agreement will have to be named NATPA, the North American TradeProtection Agreement. After a few months of alleged negotiations, the three nations have yet to indicate any real interest in free trade. Every action, every comment, every appointment, every public statement, every speech, every analysis has been grounded in the language of trade protectionism.

It starts at the political top in Canada and the United States, and trickles down to industry leaders, union bosses, appointed advisory councils, hired negotiators, and assorted special interests.

Canada’s minister in charge of the country’s negotiating team, Chrystia Freeland, recharged the protectionist tone on Monday. Ottawa is working very hard, she said, to protect the interests of workers, especially striking autoworkers. And when it comes to Canada’s dairy farmers, “we will defend their interests vigorously,” she said.

That’s just the beginning. Anti-free-trade labour rules, environmental regulations and gender-equality objectives are high on Canada’s target list. Pressure is on to protect cultural sectors.

The opposition Conservatives, led by foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole, took up the protectionist line. “I have yet to hear the prime minister stand up for our auto industry, said O’Toole. He sounded like Unifor leader Jerry Dias — now apparently a Trudeau insider — and former Canadian Auto Worker chief Buzz Hargrove, who said this week that Ottawa needs to take a “much tougher stand on trade” to protect Canadian workers, including 2,800 CAW members who