As Justin Trudeau travels Asia seeking new free-trade deals, he may want to spare a thought for embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May.May is perhaps the unluckiest politician in the Western world. As home secretary under former prime minister David Cameron, she opposed Britain’s divorce from the European Union during the so-called Brexit referendum of 2016.But as the person who replaced Cameron, she is charged with the near-impossible job of making that divorce happen.That job has cost her the support of at least nine cabinet ministers and may ultimately destroy her prime ministership.At one level, Brexit is a uniquely British story of political backstabbing, hubris and incompetence spawned by factional disputes within the ruling Conservative Party.But at another, it is an object lesson of how difficult it is for countries that have linked their economies in the name of efficiency to reverse course and regain the sovereignty they once so casually abandoned.That’s the lesson Canada’s prime minister may want to keep in mind as he solicits free trade with countries ranging from tiny Laos to mighty China.Read more:U.K.`s defiant May tells critics it`s her Brexit deal or chaosU.K. cabinet ministers approve draft Brexit dealD-Day for May as she seeks backing for draft Brexit dealLike Stephen Harper before him, Justin Trudeau is a fan of free trade. He supported and ultimately completed Harper’s trade and investment pact with the European Union. He did the same with the 11-nation trans-Pacific deal.He has spent much of his time in office trying to salvage as much as possible from U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement.This week, Canada’s peripatetic prime minister was in Singapore promoting a free-trade pact with the 10 countries that make up the Association of South-East Asian Nations: Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, Brunei and ...
|
