Ep. 115: Meet the new NAFTA, same as the old NAFTA? — Political Economy Podcast with James Pethokoukis

Last week President Trump announced a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, which he has christened USMCA — but most people refer to simply as NAFTA 2.0. President Trump understanably wants to differentiate his trade deal from the one he deemed the worst trade agreement in this country’s history, maybe ever. But many trade analysts say NAFTA 2 is not much different than NAFTA classic. One such analyst is Claude Barfield. In this episode, we talk about the differences between the two deals: how it has improved, and the updates that make it worse (at least from a free-trade perspective). We also discuss US trade policy more generally, and close with the subject of US policy toward China. Claude Barfield is a resident scholar at AEI, where his research focuses on international trade policy, the World Trade Organization, and science and technology policy. He is also a former consultant to the office of the US Trade Representative. You can download the episode by clicking the link above, and don’t forget to subscribe to my podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Tell your friends, leave a review. You can also check out the transcript of this podcast here.