British Columbians, like most Canadians, have been living with the uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 determination to change NAFTA or scrap it or use it as a bargaining chip. Or whatever.
There are signs, however, that an agreement might be imminent.
Talks among officials resumed on Tuesday, and there are hopes that Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and her top-level American and Mexican counterparts will meet on Friday at the Summit of the Americas in Peru.
The Americans have incentives to settle soon. Mexicans go to the polls on July 1, and frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is committed to standing up to Trump鈥檚 bellicose rhetoric.
Americans vote this year in mid-term elections that could weaken the Republican hold on Congress. In order to take advantage of his party鈥檚 majority position, Trump has to send them a deal by June because they need 195 days of consultation before they can vote.
If Trump needed more reason to settle, his tariff assault on China threatens to start a trade war that could damage the American economy, despite his bluster about how easy it is to win trade wars. He can鈥檛 afford to fight everyone at once.
