Washington: President Donald Trump said on Thursday he pulled back from the brink of killing the 23-year-old trade pact with Canada and Mexico after requests from their leaders and expressed optimism about winning better US terms in a renegotiated deal.
Trump, during a White House appearance with Argentine President Mauricio Macri, said terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact he has long condemned as unfair to the United States, "would be a pretty big shock to the system," though he had been planning to do so within two or three days.
"They asked me to renegotiate. I will," Trump said. "And I think we'll be successful in the renegotiation, which frankly would be good because it would be simpler" than killing NAFTA.
Trump campaigned for president last year on a pledge to pull out of NAFTA if he could not renegotiate better terms. The United States went from running a small goods trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63-billion deficit in 2016. On Thursday he said NAFTA had been "horrible" for the United States but very good for Canada and Mexico.
"If I'm unable to make a fair deal ... for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA. But we're going to give renegotiation a good strong show," Trump said.'GET TO WORK'
Trudeau, speaking at a news conference in Saskatchewan, said he had urged Trump not to withdraw from the trade pact and warned that doing so "would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain."
"That's not something that either one of us would want, so we agreed that we could sit down and get to work on looking at ways to improve NAFTA," Trudeau said.
Trump has accused Mexico of luring away American factories and jobs with cheap labour and other advantages enabled by NAFTA. During the presidential campaign he accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals into the United States, and as president plans a US Mexico border wall.
"I believe that all the conditions to reach a good negotiation exist, that will suit Mexico ... and that is also good for the region, for both Canada and the United States," Videgaray told local broadcaster Televisa.
Trump's scorn towards multinational trade deals, part of his nationalist political message, appeals to Americans who feel such pacts have cost Americans jobs. He has said businesses that choose to move plants outside the country would pay a price.
Trump made pulling out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, one of his first major acts after becoming president in January.
Several agriculture lobby groups in Washington were told US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, confirmed by the Senate on Monday, met with Trump on Wednesday evening to dissuade him from withdrawing from NAFTA.
American Soybean Association President Ron Moore said, "When you're talking about $3 billion in soybean exports a year, any threats to withdraw from agreements and walk away from markets makes farmers extremely nervous."
Comments
0 comment