Canada’s new economy czar says he’s concerned about what Brexit could mean in the long-term for free trade between Canada and the United Kingdom.

“It’s sort of a no-brainer that free trade works and being part of a broader community is a good thing to do,” said Dominic Barton, McKinsey’s global managing director and chair of Canada’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth, in an interview with BNN.

“But 52 per cent of the [U.K.] population said ‘we don’t really care too much about that, there are other issues’, and that’s the more worrying longer-term issue that I think we’re going to have to grapple with.”

Back home, he says he also finds protectionist rhetoric on the U.S. election campaign trail worrying, and says there’s greater value to the North American Free Trade Agreement than we realize, as Canada, the U.S. and Mexico’s leaders head into a summit Wednesday.

“I think the people that pushed [NAFTA] through are some of my heroes. It took guts on all fronts to get that through, and it barely went through,” Barton said.

“It created a lot of value for Canadians, for Americans, for Mexicans, and I think there’s much more opportunity there to go to a NAFTA 2.0.”