Talk on trade policy of Trump administration with Prof. Stephane Paquin (Canada)

On July 3rd, 2018, the East Sea Institute and Diplomatic Strategy Institute, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam jointly held a talk with Prof. Stephane Paquin on the trade policy of the Trump administration and the renegotiation of NAFTA.

Prof.Stephane Paquin is Research Director of the Center for Globalization and Integration at the University of Montreal and also Canada's top expert on international public policy and political economy. He has written and edited 28 books and he is the author of hundreds of articles on comparative political economy, globalization, governance reform, and international trade policy.

At the talk, Prof. Paquin presented an overview of trade relations between Canada and America, the key elements in the Trudeau Administration's radical trade policy, the difficult issues in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

According to Prof. Paquin, the trade policy of Trump’s administration has a lot of contradictions, and it is full of pragmatism. Trade pressures of the US on both allies and opponents are not merely Trump's "negotiating tactics", but rather a reflection of long-term, strategic structural changes in the US administration. 

According to Prof. Paquin, NAFTA negotiation [1] has completed 9 rounds so far and half of the agreement was negotiated but there has been a lot of barriers and factors that could complicate the situation, specifically the possibility of losing the right to a fast track, the Mexico elections and the midterm elections in the US in November 2018.

In terms of real content, the negotiation is at a standstill because the US side is extremely "tough", setting up almost unacceptable conditions on some of the important issues with Canada and Mexico, including policy on arbitration, the open of markets to agricultural goods; government procurement conditions; the open of the telecommunications market and e-commerce; money management; and the "sunset clause" [2]

The talk was attended by researchers, lecturers of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, representatives of the Economic Integration Department, and the Multilateral Economic Department.

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[1] Close advisers of Trump such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Trade Advisor Peter Navaro both consider NAFTA renegotiation a top priority because the agreement is "very bad" with the United States.

[2] Agreement will be renegotiated in 4 years, otherwise it will automatically be expired.