CANADA/MEXICO/NAFTA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “This week, Canada’s leaders have a big choice to make: whether to go along with the new North American Free Trade Agreement negotiated between the Trump administration and Mexico. President Donald Trump is demanding that Canada accept new rules on everything from cross-border investment to dairy to autos. In anticipation, the Canadian and U.S. business communities are waiting on tenterhooks. Will Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blink and give in to Trump? Should he? We have a bold suggestion: Do nothing. Despite all the theater and brinkmanship, nothing really happens on September 30. NAFTA doesn’t expire, and Trump doesn’t have the authority to rescind it unilaterally. It’s true that presidents can withdraw the United States from treaties as a matter of international law (the Roosevelt administration did so several times), but NAFTA is equally a creature of domestic law, and Congress isn’t likely to pull the plug overnight. Trump’s withdrawal would do nothing to change the NAFTA Implementation Act, which was passed in 1993 and would stay in effect.”
–Todd N. Tucker and Tomothy Meyer, “Why Canada’s leaders should wait out Trump’s NAFTA deal (And why Americans should hope they do.),” Politico, September 25, 2018 5:06 am