Trade Wars - overcoming the Trump handshake

Canadian prime minister, Trudeau, yet again proved his star power today by taming the Trump-shake. Perhaps a sign of the balanced approach likely to be found in trade discussions, as Trump tears up NAFTA, or not.

Mexico is clearly his target, and of course the Mexican peso has already weakened since Trump won the election. As an agreement rather than a treaty, Trump lacks the power to unilaterally cancel NAFTA, but has the authority to change the language of the agreement. For an agreement made in the 90s, areas like the digital economy make a lot of sense to tackle.

https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/naftas-future-three-amigos-will-dance-alone

But his election promise is more about bringing back 'good' 'solid' manufacturing jobs, perhaps from Mexico. But the trade balance with Mexico is actually a lot more balanced than the popular rhetoric would suggest. In fact, Mexico and Canada combined buy 35% of US exports, 5X that of China. And besides, Mexican car jobs may not really be such a promising source in an age of increasing automation.

So where is the imbalance....China most clearly, and then Germany, Japan and South Korea among the largest economic partners. Hmmmm....might be a little harder to push on those guys. Perhaps Trump was literally trying to shake some more beneficial trade out of the Japanese prime minister. I can't wait to see him shake hands with China.