According to a CBC article citing a “Senior Canadian Official”, the Trudeau government is completely “comfortable” missing an October 1st deadline to join the U.S-Mexico trade alliance:
…”The source who spoke to CBC News on background, due to the sensitivity of the talks, said the external political pressure “is not a good enough reason,” for Canada to be forced into a fast finish.”… (more)
This statement follows a series of actions by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau which highlights their intent to resist any trade agreement while counting on domestic politics to deliver electoral forgiveness. Indeed for all intents and purposes it would appear Justin and Chrystia are willing to damage their economy for political benefit.
Meanwhile the Mexican government is affirming their intent to go forward with a bilateral trade deal if needed because the U.S-Mexico joint agreement is in their best interests. According to Mexico’s Chief Negotiator, Kenneth Smith-Ramos:
“We hope the U.S. and Canada will conclude their bilateral negotiation shortly. If that is not possible we are ready to advance bilaterally with the U.S … the agreement in principle that we closed with the U.S. is positive for Mexico because it preserves free trade and modernizes our trade agreement …”
A year ago it seemed almost impossible to see an agreement with Mexico that would facilitate the interests of both countries. However, with the successful election of Mexican President Lopez-Obrador, a remarkable populist shift dramatically changed the landscape within the Mexican economic outlook and policy.
Outgoing Mexican President Peña Nieto, structured his economic policy around accepting multinational corporate investment and the parasitic outcomes at follow. Exfiltration of wealth and exploitation of resources/labor are an outcropping of predatory multinational trade exploitation and globalism.
Retention of the multinational schemes generally leads to massive corruption. In the U.S. this corruption is known as “lobbying”, in Mexico the process is called ‘bribery’; however, the activity is the same.
The incoming Mexican President, Lopez-Obrador (AMLO), is more of an economic nationalist; and quite remarkably his economic outlook, at least as his team has described the objectives so far, is quite Trumpian. You might even say: “Make Mexico Great Again”.
Both U.S. President Trump and Mexican President-elect AMLO have similar outlooks toward predatory multinational corporations and economic exploitation. If you think about how Mexico was used by the multinationals in the past twenty years; and then think about a very real possibility of a U.S President and Mexican President having an economic friendship; well,… holy cats, those multinationals could be remarkably nervous right now.
AMLO supports labor and has an agenda to create a strong middle-class. President Trump supports labor, and his economic agenda is laser focused on a strong middle-class. AMLO views Wall Street multinationals as predatory by disposition. President Trump views those same multinationals as tending toward predatory behavior and in need of correction for their participation in the erosion of the American middle-class. AMLO is a strong Mexican Nationalist. President Trump is a strong American Nationalist.
As long as AMLO stays away from the authoritarian tendencies of power, ie. government ownership of private industry; surprisingly he and President Trump are likely to have a great deal more in common than most would think. Both populists; both nationalists.
This explains why the framework of the U.S-Mexico trade agreement was possible to construct. Right now both teams are filling in the details.
With AMLO and President Trump, Mexico and the U.S. have joint-interests in an economic trade bloc. President Trump and President Lopez-Obrador have common objectives; and with the economic approach outlined by AMLO toward using Mexico’s energy resources as leverage for expanded investment, the U.S. is well positioned to help.
President Trump is well positioned to assist the united trade bloc with expanded cross-border investment for economic development. AMLO wants a higher standard of living for Mexican workers; President Trump wants greater parity between Mexican workers and their U.S. counterparts. Heck, it was U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and USTR Robert Lighthizer who first proposed raising the Mexican minimum wage. Now both countries have agreed to an incremental Mexican minimum wage aspect of $16/hr within the auto sector.
Combining the wage aspect with the content and origination agreement, this has become a win/win for both AMLO and President Trump. The multinationals within the auto-sector might not like it, but they’ve already put a massive amount of money into plant and manufacturing investment in their existing Mexican footprint. They have no choice.
In an generally overlooked outcome the nationalist interests of Mexico, specific to AMLO, are very close to alignment with the nationalist MAGA agenda of President Trump. Canada is the globalist oddball in this tri-fecta; which makes a trilateral deal almost impossible, and explains why Mexico is so willing to sign a bilateral agreement.
The U.S. economy is expanding at an unprecedented rate, and Mexico prepares to surf the MAGAnomic tsunami known as Donald Trump.
Centinel2012 