Alexander Panetta Profile picture
Washington correspondent, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Ex-POLITICO, CP. I gather stories about US politics and society for an international audience.
Oct 2, 2018 8 tweets 2 min read
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
Sep 30, 2018 28 tweets 6 min read
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:
Aug 27, 2018 15 tweets 4 min read
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.
Jun 28, 2018 14 tweets 5 min read
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
Mar 15, 2018 8 tweets 2 min read
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