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Bill Kelly: The NAFTA challenge – seeking rational thinking from an irrational president

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters at the National Governor's Association (NGA) Special Session - Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy Friday, July 14, 2017 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters at the National Governor's Association (NGA) Special Session - Collaborating to Create Tomorrow's Global Economy Friday, July 14, 2017 in Providence, Rhode Island. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to Washington this week for a head to head meeting with Donald Trump and it’s a safe bet that this get together won’t be as cordial as the last meeting between the two leaders.

Back then, Trump promised that there would be “tweaking” of NAFTA, but after three rounds of negotiations and numerous Trump rants, it’s clear that Trump understands very little about trade agreements and is only using NAFTA to whip up support from his equally uninformed base.

Justin Trudeau’s  task this week is to convince Trump that tearing up NAFTA, as he threatens to do, would not only be harmful to Canada, but it would cause severe repercussions to the state and local economies of a good deal of the United States.

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Trudeau’s challenge is daunting, to say the least.

He’s seen fellow NATO and G-20 leaders declare that they’ve already given up dealing with Trump on international issues because he just doesn’t have a grasp of global affairs.

Informed observers understand that a revised NAFTA accord could be mutually beneficial to Canada and the United States but the chances of that happening grow dimmer each day.

Unfortunately,  that’s what happens when you attempt to have a rational discussion with an irrational president.

Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News.

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