This is a dream come true for all those blue-collar workers in the Rust Belt who voted for Trump. What more could they possibly desire when it comes to the trade deal that ruined their lives, except for a name change?



Speaking at the White House on Monday, President Trump said he wanted to change the NAFTA name to the U.S. Mexico Free Trade Agreement.

"We've made a deal with Mexico, and we'll get started with Canada immediately," Trump said. He also said he would "be terminating the existing [NAFTA] deal very soon" because NAFTA has "a lot of bad connotations" and has been a "bad deal" for the United States.

You see, all those "bad connotations" simply go away when you change the name. It's like magic!



After threatening for months to blow up Nafta, President Donald Trump seems to have settled for a modest rebranding — so far as trade with Mexico is concerned, anyway. His new “United States-Mexico Trade Agreement” would leave arrangements that have spurred innovation, growth and economic integration of the two countries mostly intact. Granted, the deal is not yet done. What’s been announced is only a “preliminary agreement.” Talks with Canada are next, and could be more acrimonious. Nonetheless, supporters of free trade will welcome signs that Trump’s bluster, not for the first time, was largely just that.

I don't know about you, but I'm relieved that a trade agreement with the name of NAFTA no longer exists. Rebranding works for TV, so it must work in real life, amirite?

It's totally new.



Note also that many parts of the deal are likely to bear a resemblance to TPP.

So we went from NAFTA to mini-TPP. Perfect.