, Columnist
Renaming Nafta Just Might Work
Will the USMCA be any more popular than Nafta? It’s worth finding out.
Would they have protested if it were called USMCA?
Photographer: Brandi Simons/Getty Images North AmericaThis article is for subscribers only.
The Trump administration’s renegotiation of Nafta is decidedly underwhelming, the product of a toxic process that made only a modest modification of the original deal. The administration’s renaming of Nafta, however — it will henceforth be known as the USMCA, for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — could prove to be a stroke of political and marketing genius.
Names really matter, and politicians should give as much thought to them as corporations do. Amazon, Google and Apple, for instance, have been established as iconic names, which probably helps those companies market their services and maintain market share.