“IT’S a big day for trade, a big day for our country,” boasted President Donald Trump on August 27th. The cause of this jubilation was progress in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal between America, Mexico and Canada. Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s president, confirmed that Mr Trump had managed to secure a bilateral “understanding” with Mexico. According to the White House’s spin doctors, Mr Trump had kept his pledge to renegotiate NAFTA and had produced a “mutually beneficial win for North American farmers, ranchers, workers and businesses”.
The deadline for publishing a more concrete version of the deal is August 31st, when the American administration plans to notify Congress of Mr Trump’s intent to sign. The rush is to enable Mr Peña to sign before December 1st, when he will be replaced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a firebrand leftist. Both men are keen to have the deal wrapped up by then, Mr Peña to make it part of his legacy and Mr López Obrador so he…
