Turning Chest-Thumping Into Policy Creates Resistance and Uncertainty for Trump
Turning Chest-Thumping Into Policy Creates Resistance and Uncertainty for Trump
“The belligerent tone of Trump’s approach to Mexico could overtake any policy initiatives,” warns AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth.
How to devise a trade policy that takes from Mexico while not hurting the United States? It’s the question lying at the heart of President Donald Trump’s so-far fitful efforts to recast American trade policy in his own image. And there are no good answers.
On his signature plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement — “the worst trade deal ever,” the candidate famously said — Trump is finding the going tough with a nervous domestic constituency in the American business community and determined opponent in Mexico.
“On our side, we have to stick to our principles and be clear that we will pursue the potential renegotiation that involves improving what we have, advancing in a positive direction, having a win-win strategy for the U.S. and Mexico, but not backtracking on what we have already accomplished,” Kenneth Smith Ramos, the head of Mexico’s trade and NAFTA office in Washington, said recently….
Below the level of rhetorical fireworks, there appears to be a line of communication between the Trump administration and Mexico on trade to at least exchange views. Mexican economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo visited Washington this week and met with Peter Navarro, Trump’s White House trade advisor. (No Trump administration trade officials have yet been confirmed by the Senate.)
Eric Farnsworth, vice president at the Council of the Americas in Washington, said the belligerent tone of Trump’s approach to Mexico could overtake any policy initiatives. For much of their history, the United States and Mexico have had uneasy or antagonistic relations, and the creation of NAFTA in 1994 started to change that.
Mexican Nationalism
“Trump is tapping into a real strain of nationalism that’s never far from the surface in Mexico,” Farnsworth said. “The close relations between the US and Mexico are a recent phenomenon.”
Wilbur Ross, Trump’s choice to be Secretary of Commerce, has privately suggested that the United States wants to change parts of NAFTA affecting the conditions under which products come into the United States duty-free, according to people familiar with his thinking.
As a technical matter, those conditions are known as “rules of origin....”
