Canada did good job on trade deal

Trade agreements between countries are inevitably born of compromises between competing political agendas. Just ask the Mulroney-era team that negotiated NAFTA with the Americans and Mexicans in 1992.

Imagine how much more difficult it is to cut a deal when one of the leaders involved is unpredictable, temperamental and often uninformed. Seen in that light, the trade pact Canada has reached with the U.S. and Mexico feels like something of an economic miracle.

The accord has its flaws, and as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently cautioned, it still must be ratified by all three countries.

Still, after 19 months of brutal negotiations, an agreement in principle exists to keep supporting free exchange in a regional market worth $25 trillion and representing 470 million people.

Good things can be said about the USMCA: It appears to preserve the dispute-settlement

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mechanism Canada insists on.

The auto sector seems to have survived.

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Supply management in Canada’s dairy sector

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is likely in its end days. This will be hard on an industry that faces significant change. But we’re no fans of rules that impose artificial pricing.

Mulroney, noting “the devil is in the details,” called the new agreement “a highly significant achievement” for Canada. It is.

Bravo.