Pyrrhic victory: will the new Nafta agreement prove damaging for Canada?
USMCA designed to keep Canada from China's orbit
Despite the deal's benefits, the US veto raises increased uncertainties over trade and investment
The new US-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA, which is expected to be signed by the end of November, offers its most northerly signatory an energy 'win' by scrapping a controversial decades-old proportionality clause. But a US say in Canada's ability to strike trade agreements raises a more concrete concern than the largely symbolic victory. The USMCA, which will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), eliminates a proportionality clause which required Canada to maintain a fixed proportion of oil exports to the US, even in the event of a supply disruption. It was a holdover from the original US-Canada free trade agreement, signed in the late 1980s, when long queues at Americ
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
