'Don't be a NAFTA Judas'

Photo: The Canadian Press

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox

A former Mexican president has a warning for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Don't abandon our country in NAFTA talks like some modern-day ''Judas.''

Vicente Fox warns that would be a mistake.

Fox told CTV News that it wouldn't do any good if Canada ditched Mexico in pursuit of a one-on-one trade deal with the U.S., in the misguided belief President Donald Trump would go easier on Canada.

Fox made his case using a biblical metaphor — urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau not to behave like the apostle who sold out Jesus Christ.

''He might, like Judas, give us a strike and go with the United States and leave us aside,'' Fox told the network, in an interview airing Sunday night.

''I warn Trudeau, and I warn Canada, you will not make it (better without Mexico).''

The Canadian government has repeatedly said it's committed to working trilaterally to renew NAFTA as a three-country agreement. However, the Canadians have also raised eyebrows in Mexico by occasionally making more ambiguous comments: some Canadian officials have at times suggested they're open to both bilateral or trilateral deals.

Trump says he could do one or the other.

In the CTV interview, Fox also did what he has done repeatedly over the last two years: Blast Trump. Using a few four-letter profanities, the former Mexican president called Trump a destroyer, pitting America against the world.