IM-Herman_2024_0312.pub

There are a range of irritants on the boil, unlikely to simmer down as the Americans, whether under Democrats or Republicans, continue on the path of unilateralism – a reversal of the multilateral rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and CUSMA. [...] The first involves the continuation of unimpeded market access, the main feature of FTA, NAFTA and CUSMA, each enshrining preferential access in trade among the parties. [...] (Restrictions that were eventually removed for Canada and Mexico in return for commitments to prevent steel and aluminum surging into the US.) Even if resolved, national security remains one of the widest exemptions that the Americans can unilaterally employ – as in steel and aluminum – to frustrate Canadian trade access. [...] This kind of America First position and distrust of international dispute settlement is reflected at the WTO, where the US has effectively paralyzed the multilateral panel process by refusing to agree on members of the Appellate Body. [...] They rather saw the US as the centre, and Canada and Mexico as appendages to the trade arrangements.