Report: Trump Eyeing Executive Action of NAFTA as Early as Monday
Report: Trump Eyeing Executive Action of NAFTA as Early as Monday
Efforts by the U.S. to withdraw from trade agreements could fall flat as China emerges as a powerful player, points out AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.
President Trump may sign an executive order as early as Monday to renegotiate the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico, making good on a promise he championed on the campaign trail.
White House sources told NBC that Mr. Trump was expected to soon sign an executive order stating his intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On Monday morning, he signed an executive order to withdraw from the the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“We will be starting negotiations having to do with NAFTA," Trump said at a swearing-in ceremony Sunday for his top White House advisers, saying he planned to enter talks with Canadian and Mexican leaders about the agreement.
"Anybody ever hear of NAFTA? I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA. But we are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border," he said, as CNN reports....
“In the past, the approach more often than not was, ‘We’ll wait to work out a way forward with the US,’ but that is changing with more eyes turning towards China,” Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas in Washington, previously told the Monitor. “Now, we hear regional leaders like the president of Mexico and others saying, ‘We want and need the US engaged in the region, but if the US withdraws, we’re going forward without them...."
