US President, Donald Trump, just told Mexico and Canada on Wednesday that he won’t end NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA is a pact that Pres. Trump railed against when he was still running for President. Last week, Trump also said that NAFTA was harmful to the workers of his country.
Pres. Trump called Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto. The White House declared that in those phone calls, Trump agreed not to put an end to NAFTA at this point in time. The leaders then agreed to proceed immediately to enable NAFTA deal’s renegotiation. This is as required by internal procedures of the three leaders.
According to the White House, the phone conversations Pres. Trump had with the other leaders were productive and pleasant.
“It is my obligation to put NAFTA up-to-date and I will do so through renegotiation,” Pres. Trump said. “It is an incredible honor to be dealing with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Peña Nieto. I believe that the outcome will make all three nations better and stronger than ever.”
Those points were stressed again by Trump on a tweet Thursday meeting: “If we don’t reach a good deal for all, then the NAFTA’s termination will push through.” Pres. Trump also said that the leaders of Mexico and Canada were the ones who made the effort to talk to him.
In another tweet, Pres. Trump said that he received several calls from Canada’s Prime Minister and Mexico’s President asking him to renegotiate NAFTA, instead of terminating it. Pres. Trump said he agreed to the subject from the fact that NAFTA can just be terminated if the countries don’t arrive at a fair deal. He also said that a good relationship between the three countries is very possible.
As Pres. Trump approaches his 100-day mark as the President of the United States, his advisors are working double time to check off the promises that he made before the election. The withdraw or renegotiation of NAFTA was a part of that list. Furthermore, Pres. Trump already removed the country from another huge trade pact, which is the TPP or Trans-Pacific Partnership. This pact was negotiated back when Barack Obama was the President.
The decision of Trump to renegotiate NAFTA came right after one senior administration official claimed that the White House considered making an executive order targeted to the withdrawal of the trade accord.
During the campaign period, Trump made the NAFTA deal one of the central components of the message he gave to gain support among the working class of the country. NAFTA was negotiated under former Pres. Bill Clinton, Trump’s presidential opponent’s husband. The agreement was consistently casted by Pres. Trump as a deal that will benefit the middle class.
The approach of the President did not soften even when his advisers warned him of the economic consequences that accompany the withdrawal from the deal until recently.
