ers. When they hear cries from the nation’s capital to “mod- ernize NAFTA,” they’re also hearing local voices with big influence reassure small business owners and consumers alike that the status quo with countries like Canada and
Mexico will not only be maintained, it will get better, regard- less of federal input.
That’s what New Hampshire Republican Governor, Chris Sununu told CBC News during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mid-July visit to Rhode Island where he became the first sitting Canadian leader to address the annual meeting of US governors. “We’re going to keep pushing this administration so it knows the benefits for countries on both sides of the border,” he said.
Gina Raimondo, the Democratic Governor of Rhode Island, shared her New England counterpart’s vision.
By David MacDonald T hrow the politics aside, far away, and consider this fact alone: American consumers are happy. In fact, they haven’t felt like this since Clinton’s last months in office. And that’s no coincidence. Unemployment is down and spending sentiment is up – it’s like the good old days. More and more Americans are again earning their spending money and they’re increas- ingly confident that letting it go between pay checks isn’t potentially financially devastating. So says a recent Thomson Reuters survey by the University of Michigan which gauged the attitudes of 500 consumers. The average hourly household wage increased by four cents in May and the nationwide jobless rate has also dropped. There’s an undeniable ongoing resurgence, according to the chief economist to the Thomson Reuters survey, Richard Curtin. The index sur- passed May projections, which was bogged- down by economic uncertainty, and grew to 97.5 in the month of May, according to MSNBC.
“I would hope the Trump administration doesn’t do anything to harm the longstanding relationship.” Source: CNBC, CBC, Reuters
Sure, people in every sector of business and industry in Canada, the US, and Mexico who rely on cross-bor- der trade remain uncertain about their future with an administration in Washington that has the ‘MEETING IN PROGRESS’ sign over the door to NAFTA for the time being, but there’s little to alarm most consum-
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