Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, creating one of the world’s largest free trade zones at that time and arguably laying the foundations for strong economic growth and rising prosperity for Canada, the United States, and Mexico. However, since Donald Trump became US President last year, renegotiating NAFTA along with other trade deals, has been high on his agenda The original NAFTA took 14 months to negotiate and just as long to ratify. The current negotiations are into their eight month and of the roughly 30 chapters to complete, many are not agreed upon. That's too slow, current U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer, said at the close of a recent negotiating session in Mexico City. The Trump administration are hoping to complete negotiations by May, 2018 so the agreement can be ratified before the opposition Democrats have a chance to regain control of Congress and or the Senate in January 2019. Mexican presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could also hurt