After Calling Nafta ‘Worst Trade Deal,’ Trump Appears to Soften Stance -
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and ALAN RAPPEPORTMARCH 30, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump, who has called the North American Free Trade Agreement “the worst trade deal” ever signed by the United States, appears to have backed off his threat to abandon the deal
and is instead proposing keeping major planks in place when he begins renegotiating it later this year.
“But in terms of the language used during the campaign
and at the beginning of the administration, it’s not as far-reaching as some people could have expected.”
The assessment that the actual policies of the United States might not end up being as harsh as those
espoused by Mr. Trump during the campaign is reflected in the confidence in the Mexican peso.
“The persistent U. S. deficit in goods trade with Canada and Mexico demands
that this administration take swift action to revise the relationship to reflect and respond to 21st-century challenges,” read the letter, signed by Stephen Vaughn, the acting United States trade representative.
Mr. Trump has often said that the United States could abandon Nafta altogether if renegotiating it is not possible.
“In terms of what we consider to be President Trump’s economic nationalist objectives
and what he has said previously about Nafta, the list of negotiating terms was relatively benign,” said Scott S. Lincicome, an international trade lawyer at White & Case.