On September 30, the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States announced a new trilateral pact that will replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The new USMCA deal will still need congressional approval from all three countries, but the inclusion of Canada in the agreement is a victory in and of itself. "There is bipartisan agreement in Congress and also an agreement between the business community and labor that without Canada there was not going to be a whole lot there," said AS/COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth.

What difference does it make if NAFTA negotiations happen with just two countries present or all three? For Council of the Americas Vice President Eric Farnsworth, it can completely change the dynamics of the ongoing talks. “We’re not just three countries in a region. We are North America. The way these supply chains and production have gone together since NAFTA has passed means we are a fully integrated economy. So it’s difficult to disagragate these economies from each other,” he said in an appearance on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas.”

Farnworth said the U.S. government might be trying to gain leverage in negotiations by separating the meetings with Mexico and Canada, but politics mainly with the former may take a turn after Mexico's July 1 presidential election. He pointed out that cooperation on security, counter-narcotics, and immigration programs are all, he said, “issues where there is a fluid exchange with Mexico. And that depends on trust and goodwill.”