NAFTA disappoints, but what to do?

In my latest screed for the ROB, I point out that for all its benefits, NAFTA is now showing its age. Twenty-five years after Canada and the US signed their bilateral FTA on which NAFTA was later based, attention in trade liberalisation and economic integration has shifted to other forums, such as Canada-EU and US-EU trade negotiations, or the TPP. Yet while new benefits won in such negotiations are also likely to benefit our NAFTA partners, other things are specific to the NAFTA relationship, like border management and regulatory mutual recognition. Despite that there seems little appetite on the part of the US to think North America, even though their economy is hurt by the many barriers that remain between our highly integrated economies.