The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ranks at the top of anyone’s list of the most controversial trade deals of all time. Reviled by critics as unfair and as a job destroyer, praised by its defenders as having a documented record of success in spurring economic growth, NAFTA reduced tariff barriers to zero for the United States, Mexico, and Canada and led to a tripling of trade among these three countries over the last 23 years. The Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) has abundantly detailed the many gains and acknowledged costs of NAFTA in numerous publications. Now that President Donald Trump has launched a renegotiation of NAFTA—having at least for the moment abandoned his 2016 campaign pledge to cancel the pact outright—the fundamental question is: Can such a renegotiation produce a positive result? A broad range of experts who have contributed to this PIIE Briefing say “yes.” The new negotiations can succeed only if they focus on how the agreement can be updated and upgraded, however. NAFTA can be modernized only if President Trump’s zero-sum “America First” agenda is replaced by one that seeks to benefit all three countries and improve their competitiveness in an increasingly competitive global economy. Prioritizing American interests is of course essential in any US trade negotiation. But an obsessive concern about bilateral trade balances and narrow special interests in the United States, as opposed to broader national and regional interests, would not only deadlock the negotiations but also likely lead to inferior outcomes for all three countries, or even a breakdown in the talks and an abrogation of the agreement. And walking away from NAFTA altogether would be disastrous for consumers, producers, and retailers in the United States. As argued in several chapters of this Briefing, abandoning NAFTA would degrade regional competitiveness and terminate jobs across North America, undoing the integration achieved since the agreement’s inception.

The authors of this book approach the emergence and endurance of the populist nationalism in post-socialist Eastern Europe, with special emphasis on Hungary. They attempt to understand the reasons behind public discourses that increasingly reframe politics in terms of nationhood and nationalism. Overall, the volume attempts to explain how the new nationalism is rooted in recent political, economic and social processes. The contributors focus on two motifs in public discourse: shift and legacy. Some focus on shifts in public law and shifts in political ethno-nationalism through the lens of constitutional law, while others explain the social and political roots of these shifts. Others discuss the effects of legacy in memory and culture and suggest that both shift and legacy combine to produce the new era of identity politics. Legal experts emphasize that the new Fundamental Law of Hungary is radically different from all previous Hungarian constitutions, and clearly reflects a redefinition of the Hungarian state itself. The authors further examine the role of developments in the fields of sociology and political science that contribute to the kind of politics in which identity is at the fore.

The Trump Administration has made NAFTA renegotiation and modernization a prominent initial priority of its trade policy. The fourth of a series of seven meetings between the trade partners took place as this report was finalized, with no result in sight. The final three rounds of negotiation, intended to salvage the free trade accord by satisfying the new US administration's concerns, are due to take place through early 2018. Either "success" or "failure" of the talks will greatly reshape the accord, with significant economic impact in all three nations and beyond.

The renegotiation and possible termination of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) sparked a lot of interest and concern in light of the United States’ declared objective to “rebalance the benefits” of the agreement. This edited book provides an overview of the changes brought to the NAFTA by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) or NAFTA 2.0. Grouping leading academics and experts from the three countries, the book covers the major topics in the transition from the NAFTA to the USMCA. The book also sheds light on the evolution of North American economic integration within the past three decades and reflects on the significance of the regional integration model represented by the NAFTA and now the USMCA. The book is aimed at scholars, students, officials, professionals and interested citizens concerned by the big issues surrounding North American integration and economic globalization.