Nafta survives Trump bluster

The North American Free Trade Agreement reportedly re-emerged from the ashes of President Trump’s trade hostilities this week. While the details of the renegotiated deal were still trickling out, they appeared unlikely to justify months of manufactured drama that rattled markets, frayed alliances and hurt business. Running up against an administration imposed deadline to rework Nafta, the self-styled deal artist was facing the midterm elections without a sketch of a bargain. Hence the weekend’s last-ditch talks between US and Canadian officials, who had reached a stalemate amid threats and insults from the president.

Trump had vowed to cut Canada out and end the three-party agreement altogether when he and Mexican President Enrique Pen˜ a Nieto announced a deal to tinker with auto-manufacturing and other provisions in August. The Canadians’ 11th-hour agreement salvages for now the preliminary deal between Trump and lame duck Pen˜ a Nieto. Any delay would have brought populist President-elect Andre´ s Manuel Lo´ pez Obrador to the table, with unpredictable results. Canada, our No. 2 trade partner and largest export market, hadn’t proved susceptible to bluffs and bullying by Trump, who is even less popular there than here. Given the high risk and low rewards of Trump’s trade wars, it’s fortunate that his bluster about blowing up Nafta also appears to have been overblown.