Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency in 2017.

I'm Freddie Gray and I'm Deputy Editor of The Spectator. I'm joined today by Jacob Harbrun, who is editor of the national interest.

And we're going to be talking about the possibility that Brexit Britain could join the North American Free Trade Agreement.

So Jacob, when the telegraph reported this week that Brexit Britain could be joining NAFTA,

my first thought was this sounds like kind of Brexiteer pie in the sky thinking,

something that Eurosceptics have long dreamed about, but it was never really a realistic

probability or possibility. You don't think the same as me. Can you explain what you think about it?

Well, I thought that since Trump appears to be on the verge of withdrawing from NAFTA, that the prospect of Britain joining might be enough to entice him to reconsider what would surely be a drastic economic move that would have severe negative effects, particularly in the Midwest on farmers

in the United States. So I was grasping its draws, to put it bluntly.

Yeah. I mean, the idea there would be that Trump could say he is redefining NAFTA and to include

Brexit and maybe even exclude Mexico?

Well, if he excludes Mexico, it would again have severe negative impacts upon the

American economy.

I was hoping that Britain might be enough to persuade him to reconsider the entire deal,

since it is a North American free trade agreement.

You know, it does go back.

Back in the 1990s, I think Conrad Black and others were arguing that Britain in the United

States should form a new alliance after the end of the Cold War and that this would be in Britain's interest.

So I don't know how enthusiastic Theresa May is about this prospect. I don't know how enthusiastic she is about anything.

I think it seems to me it's Liam Fox, who's long been a huge Atlantisist and

you're a skeptic, obviously, who's our minister for international trade.

It seems to me an idea he's putting about.

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