MLI Munk Senior Fellow Sean Speer appeared on CPAC to discuss how Canada and the world will need to adapt to a new approach to US foreign policy.
“Previous presidents may have been prepared to accept economic imbalances in the name of regional stability or regional relationships,” says Speer. In contrast, the Trump administration is “driven by raw national interest.”
This can be seen specifically with how the administration went about with the NAFTA renegotiations, in what became the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “They went about in a singularly-minded way to secure a deal that better serves American interests, even if that’s done at the expense of Canada or Mexico.”
But it’s also not just limited to this deal or even this administration. As Speer adds, “I think we’ll be living in a world where the Trump administration and future US administrations wield influence differently and pursue national self-interests differently.”
