All deals have written frameworks.

All deals have written frameworks - not all negotiations. Of course, there are written materials with negotiations - but those will almost invariably not be released unless a deal is reached.

Evidently it is. We're not going to cede our economic sovereignty to the CCP and continue down the trajectory of hollowing out America's manufacturing base.

Right. And Canada isn't going to cede their economic sovereignty to the U.S., and continue down the trajectory of becoming whiplashed by whatever Trump decides to feel angered by that day.

What they fail to realize is that they don't have enough Canadians up there to realize their dreams of being a manufacturing power, broad spectrum. In a way they're like Russia: Massive land, relatively small population inside it. So by definition their major contributions to the world economy are going to be natural resources. Somehow in their minds that's not good enough for them.

My goodness - the absolute nerve of them not to be satisfied with merely being a source of natural resources for us to have an advanced economy with! That they might aspire to have a more advanced economy themselves!

Sarcasm aside, Canada's certainly not a large country - but they do have about 42 million people, putting them in the global Top 40. And like all countries - everywhere - they aspire to being more than they are. They want to have a more diverse economy so they're not subject to the vicissitudes of Washington. So if you create a situation where keeping current levels of economic reliance on the U.S. economy is no longer going to help them move towards their goals, they are going to adjust to that new scenario. And it will be smart for them to do that, because the U.S. is now incrementally less beneficial to have a closely interconnected economy with.

Hey, I get it. Most of the left side of the aisle stopped playing for Team USA a long time ago and instead considers themselves "Citizens of the world" or some such. Good luck with that.

Not sure why you went there. This thread isn't about whether we (meaning the US) want Canada to go their own way. We obviously don't. I specifically noted that having the Western Hemisphere "locked up" is good for the U.S..

Rather, this is about why Canada might determine that it's in their interests not to go along with this plan. As you point out, they're a smaller country than the U.S. The way they maintain a stronger position is by being able to deal with the whole world, to diversify their markets and their economy, so that the U.S. can't just squeeze them so easily.

That's why I noted at the beginning of this discussion that the two ostensible goals of US policy towards Canada are in tension. We're trying to build "Fortress North America" (or "Western Hemisphere"), and we're taking this moment to squeeze Canada based on their dependence on the US economy. Those two goals conflict with each other. We don't want Canada to increase their interrelationship with countries other than the U.S., but we are also making it more painful for them to be dependent on the U.S. to such a heavy degree.