With the announcement of a U.S.-Mexico trade deal, it appears that Canada is in a “take-it-or-leave-it” scenario with very little wiggle room for any further negotiation.
Major sections of the deal have been agreed upon, including intellectual property rights and the auto sector, and it seems that those arrangements would be acceptable for the Canadian delegation as the three sides sit down together today in Washington.
In fact, there seems to be some optimism that a deal can reached by the end of the week.
The overriding question for Canada at this point is simple; is any NAFTA deal better than no deal?
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We need to realize that these negotiations were never about crafting a fair deal, it was about gaining a victory for Donald Trump.
He’s convinced his red-hatted minions that blue collar America’s woes are due to an unfair NAFTA deal and he needs to blow up the deal to satisfy them.
If Canada rejects the deal, we run the risk of being the target of even more punitive tariffs from the petulant president and needless to say, that could be devastating to our economy.
There may well be more give than take in a new deal for Canada, but the consequences of no deal paint a gloomy picture for Canada’s economic future.
Bill Kelly is the host of the Bill Kelly Show on Global News Radio 900 CHML