U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is scheduled to speak publicly alongside Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland Tuesday to conclude the second round of talks toward a new North American Free Trade Agreement.
However, you can put a fork in any optimism for a successful NAFTA outcome as Canada now takes liberal virtue-signaling to exponential levels of moonbattery and demands control of the U.S. legislative process.
One source familiar with the discussions said Canada’s Chrystia Freeland is demanding the U.S. pass “a federal law stopping state governments from enacting right-to-work legislation“.  Obviously Team U.S.A., understanding the entire construct of a U.S. Constitutional Republic and the underlying constitution therein, would not, could not and has not agreed to such a ridiculous Canadian request.
What this indicates is how far left the Canadian NAFTA negotiation team are willing to go in advancement of social justice issues that have no bearing on actual trade.  They are politically virtue-signaling to their own internal domestic audiences rather than actually engage in discussion of trade parameters.
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Well, this is rich.  A Canadian labor union leader, Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, has called President Trump “batshit crazy” yet supports the U.S. NAFTA position on Auto origination.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is said to be leveraging a position that NAFTA rules on auto manufacturing require 70% of source origination from inside the U.S., Mexico and Canada.  Canadian union leader Jerry Dias agrees with the position in order to Make Canada Great Again.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross wants more than 70 percent of North American content in vehicles built in the United States, Canada and Mexico under a renegotiated NAFTA trade deal, the head of Canada’s largest private sector union said on Friday.
Jerry Dias, national president of Unifor, told reporters he suggested in a recent meeting with Ross that the level be raised to 70 percent from the current 62.5 percent, and that the U.S. commerce secretary suggested a “more aggressive” level.

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Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has a different perspective today than prior to the beginning of NAFTA renegotiation.
Before NAFTA round #1 began Minister Guajardo stated angrily if the U.S. did not concede to the demands of Mexico his government would flood the U.S. with drugs and illegal aliens.
However, in the face of actually seeing NAFTA discussions possibly leading to collapse, Mr. Guajardo has a change in tone.  The minister is looking at alternatives, bi-lateral trade deal options are analyzed, and the reality of the Mexican economic position is settling in.
What happens next? Mexican officials are dispatched to Washington DC to enlist the lobbying efforts of K-Street and their allies in the U.S. CoC.  “Halp“:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico sees a serious risk the United States will withdraw from NAFTA and is preparing a plan for that eventuality, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Tuesday, calling talks to renegotiate the deal a “roller coaster.”
[…]  “This is not going to be easy,” Guajardo said at a meeting with senators in Mexico City. “The start of the talks is like a roller coaster.”

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There is an saying people use to criticize President Trump based on the people around him:

“People are policy, and policy is people”…

The basic argument is that Mr. Trump can be swayed or distracted from his mission by his staff and those he hires.
This is a common catch-phrase brought about by historic and conventional wisdom.  However, when applied to President Trump, it’s also just plain wrong.
No similar cliche is appropriate for Donald Trump, nothing deters or influences him from his larger decades-long ‘America-First’ economic strategy. Nothing.
Donald Trump is the policy. There’s no assembly of advisers on economic issues that can ever sway his instinct.
Example:

(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump last month rejected a Chinese proposal to cut steel overcapacity, despite the endorsement of some of his top advisers, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Beijing proposed cutting steel overcapacity by 150 million tonnes by 2022 in a deal twice rejected by Trump, who instead urged advisers to find ways to impose tariffs on imports from China, the paper said, citing the sources.

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It must be pointed out; it is up to us to do so.  The corporate media are hopelessly deficient in their coverage and explanations of how strategic objectives for national security are being delivered through a Trump Doctrine via economic leverage.  The results are stunningly effective, yet few have noticed, and even fewer seem willing to articulate.

The latest example of the geopolitical Trump Doctrine in action comes via Venezuela, and in the wake of a fraudulent Maduro election – the Trump administration’s economic and financial policy delivering sanctions against the rogue Maduro regime:

(Via LA Times) The Trump administration on Friday slapped sweeping financial sanctions on Venezuela, barring banks from any new financial deals with the government or state-run oil giant PDVSA.
The sanctions Trump signed by executive order are bound to dramatically escalate tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. and exacerbate the country’s economic crisis.

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In January Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted support for massive increases in migration into Canada:

However, policy has consequences. Eight months later, the same Justin Trudeau is now overseeing the largest mass deportation increase in the history of Canada:

TORONTO (Reuters) – As an influx of asylum seekers crossing from the United States strains Canada’s immigration system, the country is ramping up its deportation of migrants, government data shows.
Deportations of Mexicans, who have flocked to Canada in growing numbers after a visa requirement was lifted in December, was already 66 percent higher in the first eight months of 2017 than the total from the previous year.

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Justin from Canada has a problem:

[…] Trudeau’s Liberals need to gain support in Quebec […] “The government is in a real quandary over this,” said a third source familiar with official thinking….

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada fears a huge surge in asylum seekers crossing the border from the United States, putting political pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a 2019 election, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The number of migrants illegally entering Canada more than tripled in July and August, hitting nearly 7,000. Haitians, who face looming deportation from the United States when their temporary protected status expires in January 2018, accounted for much of the inflow.

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At the end of the first round of NAFTA renegotiations, Sunday, I shared a confidence level of “3” on a 10 point scale; as to whether a deal was likely. [Explained Here]
On Monday Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer debriefed President Trump the on the results of the first round (5 days).   USTR Lighthizer and Secretary Ross were both at the White House during the eclipse viewing.
On Tuesday, following that briefing, President Trump shares his opinion on NAFTA. WATCH:

.
Remember, this statement follows the discussions with Ross and Lighthizer a day earlier.  It would appear that President Trump did not like the information they shared.  Knowing that POTUS Trump isn’t going to accept or compromise on an economic deal that doesn’t fix the issues; and knowing he’s wanted to walk away from NAFTA in favor of bilateral trade deals from the outset; I might need to lower my confidence to a “1” or lower…
Super-Mega-MAGA-Winning! (more…)

Hot off The Presses.  Round One of scheduled NAFTA renegotiations has concluded today and a trilateral statement has just been released. [My thoughts follow press release]:

Washington, DC – On August 16, 2017, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo launched the renegotiation and modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Washington, DC.

This began five full days of meetings by a team of subject matter experts covering more than two dozen different negotiation topics.  Detailed conceptual presentations were made by the United States, Mexico and Canada across the scope of the agreement, and negotiating groups began work to advance text and agreed to provide additional text, comments or alternate proposals during the next two weeks.

The scope and volume of proposals during the first round of the negotiation reflects a commitment from all three countries to an ambitious outcome and reaffirms the importance of updating the rules governing the world’s largest free trade area.

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The Canadian Prime Virtue-Signaler, Justin Trudeau, appears to be backtracking on his pledge for a borderless open society in Canada.

Since telling the world they would take in all refugees regardless of consequences, well, all the refugees started showing up.   Now Justin from Canada is telling refugees they are “irregular” and will not be tolerated.  Quite a change in position.

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who once took to Twitter to welcome Syrian refugees into the country, said on Sunday that there would be “no advantage” to entering “irregularly.”
“Canada is an opening and welcoming society,” he told reporters in Montreal following talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “But let me be clear. We are also a country of laws. Entering Canada irregularly is not an advantage. There are rigorous immigration and customs rules that will be followed. Make no mistake.”

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