Reflections on the development of Canada–U.S. relations over the past four decades and special challenges now faced during the Trump administration. For most of the post–WW II period, the U.S. and Canada maintained the largest and most diverse bilateral trading relationship in the world. Currently, thirty-five U.S. states export more to Canada than any country, and U.S. exports in goods to Canada are equal to total U.S. exports to the twenty-eight-member European Union. However, NAFTA is currently being renegotiated and President Trump has threatened to terminate this historic trade accord with Canada and Mexico. Are dramatic changes in store for relations between the U.S. and Canada?
Earl H. Fry, a professor of political science and Endowed Professor of Canadian Studies at BYU, is a former special assistant in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, part of the Executive Office of the president of the United States. He has served as president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) and has been Fulbright professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, University of Toronto, and University of Helsinki. His most recent book is Revitalizing Governance, Restoring Prosperity, and Restructuring Foreign Affairs: The Pathway to Renaissance America (2014). Fry received a PhD from UCLA and received a BA and an MA from BYU.