The real target is Trump.

The Trudeau government has chalked up a strategic win by signing on to a new, avowedly more progressive Pacific trade deal. Whether it’s a victory in substance as well is far less clear.

Strategically, joining 10 other Pacific countries in a comprehensive economic arrangement comes at a particularly auspicious moment for the government. It reminds Washington that Canada has other options on trade — a useful message as the latest round of contentious negotiations with the United States and Mexico on North American trade gets underway this week in Montreal.

Canada doesn’t have a tremendous amount of leverage in these talks. So it helps to show we’re doing all we can to open other markets in case the U.S. actually pulls the plug on the North American Free Trade Agreement, as President Donald Trump keeps threatening to do.

It also gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a chance to drive home his government’s message that, in a world of increasing protectionism, the only trade deals worth reaching are ones that make sure economic benefits are spread widely. “We have to put the concerns of ordinary citizens at the centre of our negotiations,” he told an audience at the elite World Economic Forum in Davos — a gathering where “ordinary citizens” are extremely thin on the ground.

This is a fine message — if it’s carried out in reality, not just rhetoric. Inserting the word “progressive” into the name of the updated Pacific trade deal (which Canada pushed for) certainly doesn’t make it so.

Hence the question marks over the substance of the updated agreement. Canada walked away from the negotiating table in November, saying the deal fell short for this country in some key areas.

The government endured a fair amount of criticism at the time for disrupting the negotiations among the “TPP11” group. But now Trudeau and his international trade minister, François-Philippe Champagne, say they have made “real gains” that make the deal worth signing. That’s hard to judge, given the few details made public so far. According to the government, parts of the agreement dealing with such matters as labour rights and environmental issues have been strengthened. And, it says, Canada has won assurances on some issues of specific interest to this country.

On culture, it appears, Canada has won an exemption sheltering our industries from competition. It has also won concessions on intellectual property, where the original agreement would have had the effect of raising pharmaceutical prices and extending copyright protections beyond current international norms.

Those provisions will now reportedly be suspended, an outcome digital expert Michael Geist hails as proof that “caving in to foreign pressures is not a viable strategy.” That’s encouraging.

The biggest winners are likely Canadian agricultural producers — specifically western beef and grain producers who will get much more access to the lucrative Japanese market. They’re delighted with the deal. Others, such as dairy farmers, worry that their lock on the Canadian market will be further eroded. Such are the trade-offs involved in any comprehensive deal.

The biggest fight will surely be in the auto sector, where the Big Three North American manufacturers and auto parts makers are already protesting lower quotas for North American content. They fear Japanese auto companies will be able to use cheaper Asian-made parts and get a competitive edge. In other words, Canadian auto workers will have to compete more with low-wage foreign labour.

What’s missing in all of this are the details that will show whether the exemptions and new provisions Canada has won can be truly effective, or are mostly for show.

Until they are known, it won’t be possible to make a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis and know whether Canada is likely to come out as a winner overall, or a loser — and who will come out on the short end of the deal.

In the short run, though, the winner is a government whose biggest priority must still be protecting Canada’s interests in NAFTA. For this country, that’s still the great game in trade.

The Trudeau government has chalked up a strategic win by signing on to a new, apparently more progressive Pacific trade deal