The United States and Japan were driving the bus during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
The two largest economies in the 12-country Pacific Rim trade agreement had the economic muscle to get what they wanted from the smaller countries in the deal, Canada included.
Now president-elect Donald Trump has stopped that bus with his announcement Monday he will pull out of the TPP his first day in office.
The TPP won't take effect if either the U.S. or Japan fails to ratify it. What other partners do no longer matters.
Although International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland added Canada's name to the TPP signing ceremony in Auckland, New Zealand, last winter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has never been full-throated in his endorsement, even when it could have been politically useful to more obviously support Barack Obama's legacy project.
"TPP was negotiated in the midst of our election campaign, and we made a commitment to talk to Canadians about it," Freeland said last weekend, pointing to all the consultations the government held without committing to ratification.
Those conversations are why Canadians are able to support trade deals, she said, noting other countries at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Peru congratulated Canada for signing its trade deal with Europe in the face of serious challenges.
Because Liberals never invested their own political capital in the TPP, they look less like a rejected partner now.
The Japanese leaders who met with Trump last week may not feel the same. A ratification vote in Japan had appeared imminent, bolstering Obama's faint hope of getting Congress to ratify the TPP during its lame-duck session.
Source : CBC