Meredith Lilly
The NAFTA Road Ahead: Why Canada Must Be in the Fast Lane
In multilateral trade negotiations as in so many things, timing is everything. The NAFTA 2.0 process is unfolding under certain time constraints involving Mexico’s July 2018 election and a concurrent schedule for the Trump administration to renew fast track authority or Congress not to. As Meredith Lilly, Simon Reisman Chair at Carleton University, writes, Canada should strategize accordingly.
As it seeks to renegotiate NAFTA, the Trump administration rages from one political crisis to the next. tipping point may have arrived following the events in Charlottesville, when increasing numbers of Republicans and U.S. business leaders formally distanced themselves from the president. Moving forward, Republican members of Congress will be less inclined to give the president any political wins that don’t also reflect their own goals for governing—especially as