S8 Ep809: 14. Headline: Dismantling Free Trade: The Trump Administration's Attack on USMCA Guest: Mary Anastasia O'Grady Summary: The Trump administration is seeking to renegotiate or dismantle the USMCA, preferring protectionist tariffs over a "fortress North Amer
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Dan's in. |
| 0:01.0 | Jen's in. |
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| 0:22.5 | southeastern railway.com.uk forward slash group save. |
| 0:27.1 | Southeastern. I'm John Batchel. Mary Anastasia, the America's editor for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, writing about the renegotiation or extended negotiation or planned conversation |
| 0:57.0 | about USMCA. The success of these last years to do with Canada, Mexico, and the United States |
| 1:04.4 | trading among themselves. I believe the number is $1.8 trillion. It's a big number. |
| 1:12.7 | These are our primary trade partners. |
| 1:14.9 | But, Mary, good evening to you. |
| 1:22.2 | Right away in your column, you make it clear that the president is not a fan of free trade. |
| 1:22.7 | What? |
| 1:24.4 | What does that mean, Mary? |
| 1:28.8 | A Republican, not in favor of free trade? |
| 1:30.9 | What is his version of the world? |
| 1:33.9 | Not only is he not in favor of free trade. |
| 1:34.7 | Good evening, John. |
| 1:42.5 | He is not in favor of Fortress North America, which is one alternative to total open globalization. You want to defeat China. |
| 1:47.4 | You need to work with a low-cost labor producer and other countries that have comparative advantages that complement your economy. And what do we have? |
| 1:55.4 | We sit right in the middle of a continent where we have partners who do exactly that. And that's used to be the North American |
| 2:03.2 | Free Trade Agreement. It's now called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. But basically, it's free |
| 2:09.5 | trade among the three countries, taking advantage of better ways to use capital in different markets, different labor markets, different agricultural |
| 2:21.3 | markets and so forth. It's perfect. It works so well. But Donald Trump doesn't like it. He wants |
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