NAFTA gets rebranded!
This is a dream come true for all those blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt who voted for Trump. What more could they possibly desire when it comes to the trade deal that ruined their lives, except for a name change?
Speaking at the White House on Monday, President Trump said he wanted to change the NAFTA name to the U.S. Mexico Free Trade Agreement.
"We've made a deal with Mexico, and we'll get started with Canada immediately," Trump said. He also said he would "be terminating the existing [NAFTA] deal very soon" because NAFTA has "a lot of bad connotations" and has been a "bad deal" for the United States.
You see, all those "bad connotations" simply go away when you change the name. It's like magic!
After threatening for months to blow up Nafta, President Donald Trump seems to have settled for a modest rebranding — so far as trade with Mexico is concerned, anyway. His new “United States-Mexico Trade Agreement” would leave arrangements that have spurred innovation, growth and economic integration of the two countries mostly intact.Granted, the deal is not yet done. What’s been announced is only a “preliminary agreement.” Talks with Canada are next, and could be more acrimonious. Nonetheless, supporters of free trade will welcome signs that Trump’s bluster, not for the first time, was largely just that.
I don't know about you, but I'm relieved that a trade agreement with the name of NAFTA no longer exists. Rebranding works for TV, so it must work in real life, amirite?
It's totally new.
Note also that many parts of the deal are likely to bear a resemblance to TPP.
So we went from NAFTA to mini-TPP. Perfect.
Comments
Obama said he would fix NAFTA, by which he meant
full frontal TPP. At least Trump is fixing NAFTA only with mini-TPP.
And they say there's not much difference between Democrats and Republicans. HA!
/s
It occurred to me
after I posted my reply below that this is a brilliant play. There is NO downside for Trump. He escaped a trap of his own making. He kept a promise to his fans. He keeps the money hoarders happy. Congress loses whether they go along or not. Not?! Damn that’s hilarious! This has been this guy’s only play his entire life.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
It is brilliant
I bet it's already being spun as a huge victory for Trump on Fox and right-wing radio.
It'll be years before Trump voters realize that nothing changed, and by then there will be other scapegoats.
The beauty of lowered expectations
Wow.Just wow
I guess this counts as a "win" now.
Trump - copycat biatch- is far from the first president
to declare a great victory and slink away. It’s the ‘Murican way doncha know. Nobody will notice. Especially his fanbois and fangurls. Besides he’s make America great again. Who could possibly complain?
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
Fighting over car production is stupid, but go on
I notice Canada doesn't give a shit about poor people either, only middle-class or above. Maybe there are no working class or poor people in Canada, that would be great.
Trump announces US-Mexico trade deal, setting stage for Nafta overhaul
Huh! The Guardian spells NAFTA like it's a word not an acronym, dumb robots. I guess I am projecting my own stupid on their ass hat nooz reportz. That's the system. LOL
peace
P.S. Plenty of west coast factories got shuttered after NAFTA and then China MFN, not just car factories in the MidWest. How many pressman are left around here, do you guys even know what a pressman is? They weren't all men, that's for sure. The only time I ever had an FBI check was from Clarke-American, 'cause I handled the MICR toner and made plates for check printing. It was a little bit like printing money every day. Used to do the deposit slips for Ocat, Inc., too. Taco Bell, run for the border baby. lmao
Robots eat everything alive, it is what they are programmed to do, by viruses wearing shoes. heh
red wave blue wave
make amerika grotesque again
good luck
I had a clearance
because my Navy job involved knowledge of the details of classified hardware. I sure didn't get to keep it like Comey et al when I left the Navy.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
US Trade Rep. summary:
here.
Lotsa goodies for US entertainment and financial services, a few bones thrown to the auto makers and labor unions on Mexican minimum wage (hello Michigan), and some alleged 'environmental protections' targeted mostly to help US timber and fishing.
Hardly a rewrite by any stretch.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Still ...
what did Obama do? Even less in my estimation.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
True
Trump did one thing and one thing alone here, but it is very very significant: he showed that NAFTA can be rewritten.
This is after the Dems told labor unions for two decades that NAFTA couldn't be touched.
The Dems have been proven to be liars.
Meh...
Token environmental and labor tidbits mask authoritarian crackdowns on IP piracy and even greater financial exploitation of Mexico by the banks.
Sounds like just the sort of thing Obama might do.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
the guts of it
Plus a bit on intellectual property rights. This will help Mexican factories to supply parts, and US factories to get more jobs on the finished auto. Better than nothing. Plus if politicians are going to start competing on how they can make things better for American workers I'm all for it. Europe has huge tariffs on US autos.
I am in general not such a big globalization advocate, maybe because I don't buy much in the way of material goods and live a low consumption life.