American lawyers gather to ponder Trump’s NAFTA options: Can he cancel it alone?
WASHINGTON — Legal experts huddled together at a recent conference to ponder a question that could go from being a distant hypothetical to one that dominates Canada-U.S.-Mexico relations: can an American president unilaterally cancel a trade deal?
The reason it’s suddenly relevant, of course, is President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to scrap NAFTA, and it came up at a Duke University conference on exiting international agreements, where one session was dedicated specifically to trade.
Curtis Bradley told colleagues he’s convinced the president could do it alone. Bradley’s view carries weight: he co-edits the prestigious international-law journal of the American Law Institute. And he has little sympathy for the argument the president can’t act.
That argument stems from an apparent contradiction in the cornerstone of American law: in the U.S. Constitution, Article One gives Congress power over commerce, while Article Two gives the president power over international affairs.