Canada will have strong hand in NAFTA negotiations

US President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech, in which he pledged to always put America first, was potentially bad news for Canada. Trump has indicated that he wants to begin an almost immediate renegotiation of NAFTA, with US-Canada discussions to focus on the dispute settlement provisions and rules on origin of production. Canadian trade with the US is nearly balanced and includes significant oil and gas exports which, even with the shale oil revolution, the US could never replace with its own domestic production. Canada actually runs a deficit with the US in machinery and transport equipment goods.