Brexit a chance for North American leaders to champion NAFTA

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The political maxim is that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. So Brexit might just be a springboard for North American leaders to underline the value of trade and political co-operation on this continent.

The plummeting markets, the fear of economic turmoil, the post-vote remorse, political recriminations and division – it's all bad news about Brexit. And some think it's an opportunity for North American leaders to counter Donald Trump's rhetorical trashing of NAFTA and his pledges to build walls and raise tariffs.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prepares to host Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and U.S. President Barack Obama for the North American Leaders' Summit on Wednesday, Brexit is at the top of the news. The White House conference call for reporters was heavy with questions about how Britain's vote to leave the European Union will alter the leaders' agenda.

Like the scary tales once told to ward children from danger, Brexit can serve as an object lesson about the dangers of withdrawal and isolation – or at least a contrast to three leaders talking up a North American bloc of 500 million consumers and $1.2-trillion in annual trade.

Brexit, one Mexican official said, is going to be bad news, but "it shows there is an opposite direction to be taken." While Brexit's turmoil is about closing borders and ties, North American leaders will be talking about improving border co-operation and advancing on climate and energy co-operation. Ironically, the official said, "it's the perfect platform."

If Brexit provides a stage, the antagonist remains Mr. Trump, who will probably go unnamed by the leaders even as they try to counter his narrative.

Mr. Pena Nieto, one guesses, would like to use Mr. Trump's name – the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president has used Mexico as a rhetorical pinata. But Mr. Pena Nieto arrived in Canada on Monday promoting a more presidential call for deeper "economic integration" on the continent. Mr. Trudeau is an ally, and Mr. Obama will laud the virtues of continental co-operation – but in the U.S., NAFTA has become a political punching bag. Mr. Trump may be noisy, but at least that provides a clear figure of contrast.

There are many in Canada, too, who want the leaders to use this summit to push back at Mr. Trump – not by name, but at his rhetoric against North American open borders and trade.

"I wouldn't worry about Trump," former prime minister Brian Mulroney told The Globe and Mail recently. "You better stand up and defend these things that have been so powerful. NAFTA has produced tremendous results for Mexico, for Canada and for the United States."

Someone, Mr. Mulroney said, should be fighting back against the Trump message, pointing out that NAFTA has created jobs. Even if trade and technology cause damage to the older economy while creating new-economy jobs, he said: "Jobs are lost but new jobs are created."

The Canadian business community wants to hear a trade champion, too, rather than ceding the ground to Trump-style rhetoric. "Absolutely they should be talking about it," said John Manley, president of the Business Council of Canada.

The lack of U.S. leadership is particularly worrisome, he said. "Nobody's championed this, literally, since George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton," he said. "For smaller economies like Canada, it's all about supply chains and trade, for those advantages that we've got."

Net job-creation statistics and supply-chain arguments don't sway many of the skeptical, however, and sizable segments in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico think NAFTA has been bad for their country. But some think the graphic pictures of the alternatives might help more: The uncertainty of Brexit, maybe even the bombast of Mr. Trump, might provide opportunities to underline the benefits of open borders and trade.

This summit won't be all trade and borders, of course – those topics won't even dominate, as Mr. Obama's administration winds down and can no longer start and complete grand initiatives. The summit's biggest headlines will be about the alignment of climate-change goals between an outgoing U.S. president, a new Canadian prime minister and Mr. Pena Nieto's Mexico.

But the symbolism of this summit is about the future of a North American bloc that is embattled in the U.S. And at least some hope the bad news of Brexit helps sell the message.