NAFTA Likely Safe from Oil Focused Obama Administration: Experts

(The Canadian Press – Julian Beltrame)

U.S. President Barack Obama may turn out to be far better for Canadian free trade and economic interests than candidate Barack Obama ever pretended to be, experts on both sides of the border agree.

Obama – triumphant Tuesday in his bid to become America’s first-ever black president-elect – was far from neighbourly in his pronouncements impacting Canada during the campaign. At times, he sounded stridently protectionist and even hinted he might tear up the NAFTA trade agreement to protect industrial jobs in hard-hit parts of the U.S. industrial heartland.

But even if he meant it at the time – and an Obama adviser confided to Canadian officials he didn’t – most analysts say opening up or scrapping the most successful trade deal in history is not in the cards. Read more here.