United States of Mexico and Canada
Dear Mexico,
It seems Donald Trump wants to tear up the NAFTA and end what had been the basis of a progressive and stabilizing economic marriage between the three markets because not all aspects ended up being weighed to his benefit, even as most clearly did as they took advantage of our abundant resources and your cheap labour pool to increase their own output. So be it, clearly he doesn’t see the value we both bring to the table in this relationship, or understand that any marriage economic or otherwise, is based on a give and take, where not meant to solely benefit just one party.
Perhaps he just thinks he can negotiate a better deal under the implicit short term threat of such a divorce might inflict upon our common economies regardless of damage it might incur on his own. He wouldn’t be the first school yard bully to threaten to take his ball and go home if he didn’t get what he wanted, but we all know to bend or buckle to such a tactic by any bully only condemns us to living under that threat forever.
It’s time we sat down and discussed what some long term planning could accomplish if we worked together combining our extensive natural resources and your abundant labour pool. Let Trump build his wall and pay for it himself, including the one he would need across the longest border between two counties in the world, ours and his. Let him try and ignore and isolate himself from his two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, and learn for himself what it means to stand alone in a global market place.
Canada is the second largest country in the world and blessed with an abundance of natural resources including two of the most important, energy and water, yet held back by a small and slow growing population. Mexico has nearly four times our population and is growing at twice our rate. Global climate change is going to be a threat to your population and growth, but ironically perhaps a benefit to Canada as more arable agricultural land becomes available, and more importantly the fresh water to utilize it. Together we could feed and power the world by trading in the global market on our own terms.
We already share a more culturally aligned history then most other countries being both a product of colonization from predominantly European Christian and democratic countries, but also an understanding that language isn’t a barrier to communication. For most Canadians, your English is better than our French, and our Spanish is likely better then your French; we will figure it out. Ask the Cuban’s who stood tall as a friend and willing partner to trade with when the Americans held a grudge for more than fifty years and failed to yield. Canada
We both share access to both east and west ports and both have the infrastructure to move people and products from coast to coast with ease and this connects us to every market on the planet. With our resources and your people we could own any market we desired, and both feed ourselves and the world.
The US may have been who brought us to this party, but if they are no longer interested in being our dance partners, why shouldn’t we be looking at what we can do for each other. Imagine what our combined economy would look like if we created a common trading currency with the freedom of labour movement similar to what the EU forged and harnessed resources with labour. Imagine professionals and labours alike free to move with opportunity and growth, and the opportunities that produced to expand and grow.
It’s time to stop thinking in economic quarters and election cycles, and do like the Chinese have done throughout history, and start planing over generations and centuries. In a mere fifty years, combined and determined, together we could be one of the world’s most successful trading blocks.
If Donald Trump’s America doesn’t see strength in numbers and wants to stand alone, let him, we are stronger together and nobody’s pushover to bully around united. Together a common Canadian/Mexican economic alliance would be in just one generation, an envy of any trading block on the planet. A progressive and determined work force backed by an abundance of every desired commodity on the planet.
Mi amigo, lo que podríamos hacer juntos es mucho más de lo que cualquiera podría lograr solo.
