NAFTA was a reoccurring theme throughout the week, and although not all partners supported the incendiary rhetoric surrounding the trade deal, there was general agreement that the by-product of introducing renegotiations was a positive outcome. Most of the speakers urged against making trade deficits the focus of the renegotiations, as this could have negative effects on global value chains. They asserted that the focus should be on updating NAFTA for the 21st century, particularly for the digital sector. In this vein, one speaker maintained that the Trump’s attitude toward trade deficits can help ensure a more level playing field for trade by looking into practices that have been deemed unfair, which can affect deficits without making them the focus. For example, although tariffs are falling around the world, other fees have been imposed by some countries to make foreign exports less competitive. The discussion on trade deficits has opened the debate to other more overlooked issues such as this, which may actually benefit the contemporary rules-based trading order.

One speaker summed up the week by describing the current rhetoric around free trade as a shift from the post-World War II order to a pre-World War I order. The anxieties that many communities are feeling, which have given rise to protectionist and populist sentiment around the world, are the result of the existing social structure’s failure to provide for individuals. As colleges fail to produce jobs for graduates, governments are racked by scandal and in-fighting, and companies can no longer provide decades-long job security, individuals are seeking to withdraw from the global order. In doing so, they support a return to a more insular system in an attempt to recapture former prosperity, similar to the isolationism that preceded the First World War. This attitude was unsuccessful pre-1914, and is even less tenable in today’s increasingly interconnected world. However, nearly every speaker acknowledged that the current order is broken, and that steps must be taken to address the issues of trade to prevent further societal failure. For many, that begins with an improved unemployment benefits system, increased job training for sectors displaced by trade, and apprenticeship programs for opportune fields, rather than protectionist policy.