The former U.S. Ambassador to Canada believes that ‘NAFTA’ has become a toxic term when it comes to its political implications.

Canada and the United States have seen tensions escalate recently over the North American Free-Trade Agreement, including U.S. countervailing duties on newsprint, a Canada-led WTO complaint against U.S. trade policies and public criticism from trade representatives on both sides.

Bruce Heyman says it’s time to move away from the term ‘NAFTA’ and focus more on free trade.

“Let’s change the name NAFTA because the name in and of itself is being used politically,” said Heyman, who served as Ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2017, in an interview on BNN Thursday.

“It is a toxic term and that has been used politically in the United States in a toxic way,” Heyman added. “Saying people are losing jobs as a result of NAFTA, people are being impacted, the gap between the haves and the have-nots are due to NAFTA and President Trump used this – I think – effectively, politically, on the ground with individuals, especially in the manufacturing Midwest.”

Heyman said it would be reckless for U.S. President Donald Trump to follow through on his promise to rip up the trade pact if it can’t be negotiated.

“It would be reckless geopolitically,” Heyman said. “The strength of North America – all of us coming together – is more than the economics alone. So, if you just have trade negotiators looking at the economics, I hope that the balance [for the U.S.] is also coming from the State Department and other parts of Washington where they recognize the depth and breadth of the Canada-U.S. relationship.”

However, one international trade lawyer believes the actions taken by both sides this week signal that Trump is ready to pull out of NAFTA.

“It may be just a signal that NAFTA is beyond rescuing,” said Lawrence Herman, International Trade Counsel and Herman and Associates. “That’s, I think, the problem here. That’s what we’re faced with. I don’t think the Canadian government would have moved at this juncture unless there were strong indications that the Americans were on the verge of pulling the NAFTA plug.”

“It may not happen. We may be able to continue these negotiations. Chrystia Freeland has said Canada will remain at the negotiating table and will continue to make valiant efforts to rescue the deal. But, I think the reality is – at least in my view – that the NAFTA negotiations are pretty close to hitting the wall,” said Herman.

Heyman says that Trump may have to kill NAFTA in any event, as Americans head to the polls this year for mid-term congressional elections.

“I know the far left in the Democratic Party and the far right in the Republican party are going to use this in campaigns coming up this year,” he said, “which leads me to believe [there are] increasing possibilities of the President fulfilling what he threatened to do.”