Donald Trump's plan for a swift update to Nafta is about to hit reality like a brick wall - The White House has started the clock. The re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which underpins $1.1. trillion in trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico, will start no later than August 16. But will it be a spruce-up or a gut renovation? When US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer calls these trade talks (pdf) an effort at “modernization,” one pictures a contractor talking about fixing a small leak in the bathroom. But when the walls come down and the pipes are exposed, little problems can multiply. That leak turns out to be over-pressure in the water heater, which must be replaced. Now your septic tank is overflowing into the neighbor’s yard. And soon, you are enmeshed in a total, and expensive, plumbing overhaul.
