Canada’s Trudeau May Have Saved NAFTA

White House officials reportedly enlisted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help convince President Trump not to unilaterally withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Trudeau was in conversation with Trump and Mexican President Peña Nieto in the days before Trump backed off reported plans to pull out of NAFTA.

Instead, Trump announced that he would renegotiate the 23-year-old deal that includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Trade tensions rose at the end of last month after the U.S. slapped a 20 percent tariff on Canadian softwood lumber.

The threat of a departure from NAFTA caused concern among several industries, and agriculture leaders pushed hard to be heard on Capitol Hill.

Rumors that the U.S. might leave the agreement with Canada and Mexico led to two pivotal phone calls between Trump and the leaders of the neighboring nations.

Multiple Canadian government sources told the National Post that White House advisers who favored staying in the deal reached out to Trudeau to press the case.

“You never know how much of it is theatre, but it didn’t feel that way,” one senior Canadian diplomatic source said. “Maybe they’re just learning how to be a government. At least they were open to the conversation, and that stopped them doing something rash and destructive.”

Source: The Hill