Trump and many Americans view the world from an American-centric perspective where the rest of the world needs us more than we need them, and while in some cases that's probably still true in 2017, it's not necessarily true for our biggest trade partners.
Mexican economic minister Ildefonso Guajardo indicated yesterday that his nation may beat us to the punch in pulling out of NAFTA if our child president, Donald Trump, is serious about squeezing the country.
"There could be no other option. Go for something that is less than what we already have? It would not make sense to stay," Guajardo said when asked on television if Mexico could pull out of the trade deal with Canada and the United States.
"The strategy for this treaty needs to be one in which everyone wins. It's impossible to sell it here at home if there aren't clear benefits for Mexico," he added.
At this point we have to talk about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) again, because it's all connected.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would have effectively replaced NAFTA and included Asian-pacific countries that we don't currently have a similar trade deals with, but Trump has effectively killed the deal.
This matters because China's alternative trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), could include Mexico in our absence.
If all of this plays out the way it appears to be playing out today, it doesn't mean we will no longer be able to purchase goods imported from Mexico, or Canada, other an other nation, but you personally will end up paying more for it. The cost of virtually everything will increase when Trump abandons our trade agreements while delivering no net increase in jobs or wages.
We do not have the infrastructure to produce everything we import domestically and, even if every major importer began building new factories and plants tomorrow, it would take decades to replace what we've lost. Moreover, the majority of it would be automated. Adding a thousand temporary jobs here or there, like Trump's bullshit "deal" with Carrier in Indiana, is a drop in the bucket compared to monthly and yearly job growth in the US.