Some of what we’ve learned: The final ‘i’ dotted, the last ‘t’ crossed, that cemented the NAFTA deal Sunday night was Lighthizer, Freeland, and their teams working out a tariff threshold for Canadian autos so high that it basically is more symbolic than real. 1/
2/ You’ve perhaps seen the details about no-auto-tariffs-ever unless Canada exports 44% more cars to the US? Apparently it goes beyond that — adjustments include switching to the more generous (NAICS) import coding system. Basically, Canada isn’t hitting these #s anytime soon
3/ Our reporting shows two distinct narratives on How The Deal Went Down. They’re not necessarily mutually exclusive. But in the 🇺🇸 gov’t telling: “We scared Canada with tariffs, they gave us dairy, we got a deal.” In the 🇨🇦 govt telling: “Um, we offered the dairy thing weeks
4/ ago predicated on movement on Chapter 19 and tariffs. The US was constructive last week, wanted a deal by Oct 1, we got a Chapter 19 document last Friday, and - voila - there’s your dairy offer. Then auto tariffs, then deal Sunday.”
5/ One of the more fascinating things today was the praise for Lighthizer from Canada, calling him constructive, friendly to Canada, and instrumental in brokering deals on autos, sunset that reconciled Canadian and American positions. Because things got FROSTY over the last year.
6/ More than once he yelled at the Canadians for leaking US proposals. Lighthizer made clear he hated media leaks. For their part, the Canadians made clear they hated Team Trump’s ideas about trade. And Canada let the public - & US stakeholders -know what was happening. Needless
7/ to say, this didn’t go down well. More than one American has described to POLITICO literally watching as a proposal landed on the table, Canadians talked to a reporter, and a reporter would call USTR to ask about the US proposal just made behind closed doors. “We saw them”
8/ But things got much quieter in the process, later on. Parties stopped leaking. Thus, a winding road sprinkled with shouting matches and mutual suspicion ended today in announcements filled with smiles. And praise for adversaries. Our story. politico.com/story/2018/10/…
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We’ve just moved a story for POLITICO Pro subscribers with details on the major contours of the new NAFTA Canada, the US, and Mexico are on the verge of announcing later tonight, or likelier tomorrow. bit.ly/2P08rd7
2/ We’re being discouraged from casting it as a done deal because things can always take a nasty turn, but a few of the details of the likely new NAFTA agreement are as follows:
3/ Consumers in Canada will get to import more online purchases - more than 5x more, although the countries have been haggling with the design of new de minimis rules (how much is tax exempt, in addition to duty exempt) which could affect a lot of things (Canadian retailers,
Context for today’s NAFTA development: Canada’s negotiating strategy this spring was to see 1) auto talks conclude between 🇺🇸 and 🇲🇽, then hope 2) the 🇺🇸 would be so happy with gains it would sprint to a deal through other irritants. Today: 1 has happened. 2: We’ll soon see
PS: The vast majority of people on Twitter today professing to know what everything means for No. 2 and a NAFTA deal in general are BS’ing you. That is all.
Today, in summary: 1) US/Mexico agreed to ‘sunset light’, a 16-year NAFTA that can be renewed after a regular review every 6 years (versus original sunset plan to kill NAFTA every 5 years barring trilateral agreement) 2) Agreement designed to increase the salary of auto workers &
So here’s where I’ll be working. A rundown on our new project, which I’m very excited about —> ft.com/content/f4562c…
POLITICO is going Canadian! Coming soon: POLITICO Pro Canada. The goal: To produce the most in-depth coverage of Canada-US relations ever, by leveraging the reporting power of 200 policy and politics journalists in the US. Sign up for a free trial: politicopro.com/canada
2/ Think of it as a massive Washington bureau covering news of interest to anyone with a stake in the cross-border relationship. I’ll be its editor. Every day, our unit will work with @POLITICO’s deeply-sourced teams covering the White House, Congress, & 15 different policy areas
Here's another twist in the Trudeau-Trump story... It turns out, the meeting details may have been... wait for it.... made up. The Canadians are unsure what meeting Trump's referring to. One said the conversation might have been by phone. Apparently, 1/2 nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/c…
2/ they have these sorts of chats about the deficit/surplus once in a while. But this story - "Justin comes in," etc, etc, we send our officials out of the room, they come back in, I was right on trade... Apparently it's a blend of different chats. And one person I heard from
3/ said this anecdote from Trump most resembles a chat they may have had by phone.