The good news is that U.S. President Donald Trump will not be at the negotiating table when NAFTA talks get underway Wednesday.
Trump has demonstrated by his comments and his actions of late that he has little to no knowledge of international politics or international trade for that matter, but fortunately, the delegations for the United States, Canada and Mexico are well-seasoned veterans of international trade.
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But make no mistake about it; Trump’s bluster about unfair trade deals will be a dominating factor in these NAFTA talks.
To suggest that things haven’t gone well in the Trump administration would be a massive understatement.
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He has the lowest approval rating of any American President in modern history; his attempts to reform health care and immigration policies have failed and the investigation into the Trump family’s involvement with Russian interference in last year’s election continues.
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Simply put, Trump needs a political victory at this point and you can be sure that the American negotiating team at the NAFTA table have been told in no uncertain terms that the United States needs to be seen as the big winner in a new NAFTA deal.
And there’s the rub.
When fairness and goodwill take a back seat to political expediency, only bad things can happen.