RAGGING the PUCK on NAFTA TALKS

TIME TO GIVE U.S. SOMETHING OR RISK A BEATING

In a week of twists and turns, zigs and zags, ups and downs, the trade news that most surprised me was the recruitment of Paul Ryan, son of Wisconsin, to Canada’s side in the contest with Donald Trump’s administration over steel and aluminum tariffs.

Ryan, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was an early and vocal critic of the president’s willingness to risk economic chaos on the pretense that unfair competition has diminished the United States’s ability to maintain its War Machine.

Ottawa took note. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland reportedly called Ryan as they rounded up support for an exclusion. All the lobbying appeared to have an effect. Trump went ahead with his tariffs, but exempted Canada and Mexico, for now. Ryan vowed to keep fighting until the president drops the threat completely. “Our economy and our national security are strengthened by fostering free trade with our allies,” he tweeted.

Freeland called Trump’s decision “logical.” Maybe so, but logic isn’t winning many arguments in Washington these days. Trump gave ground after the congressional wing of his party mounted a counterinsurgency. It’s fair to assume Canada now owes Paul Ryan one. I wonder what he might consider fair payment?

That’s a rhetorical question. Ryan supports the North American Free Trade Agreement, but agrees with Trump that it needs to be updated, and said in January that the biggest problem “comes from the North.”

Wisconsin produces considerably more milk and cheese than its population of 5.8 million people can consume; the state’s dairy farmers would like to export more of their excess production to Canada. When Ryan met Trudeau on Capitol Hill in February 2017, he “reemphasized the importance of breaking down trade barriers and improving market access for America’s dairy farmers.”