Robert Lighthizer

Spread thin and up against a bullying opponent, Chrystia Freeland saved NAFTA and emerged as the politician to watch in Ottawa. Now what?

It started with a demand from Donald Trump and seemed like a zero-sum game. John Geddes on the long, divisive fight and the last minute deal.

The U.S. president says he doesn’t like Canada’s foreign minister, but the more interesting dynamic is the contrast between Freeland and Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s trade czar

Since the renegotiation began, red circles on the calendar have repeatedly come and gone. The reality: ’It will take as long as it takes.’

Freeland on the state of negotiations: ’We’ve made good progress but there’s still work to be done’

America doesn’t have the resources to fight China and its North American friends on trade at the same time. Something has to give.

Econ-o-metric: Canadian arguments about balanced trade with the U.S. don’t matter to Trump. His NAFTA logic says deficits are for losers, full stop.

Trump’s trade czar puts it at 700,000, close to what Bernie Sanders claimed in his presidential run. Others differ.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer couldn’t find too many redeeming qualities of the trade deal on the books. Watch for tough negotiations to follow.

For the record, the U.S. trade representative’s statement as NAFTA renegotiations get underway in Washington, D.C.