TPP could form starting point for talks on NAFTA
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said parts of an Asia-Pacific trade deal rejected by the Trump administration could form the basis of a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement.
“There are some concessions that the NAFTA partners made in connection with the proposed TPP,” Ross said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg Television, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“There is no reason to throw those away. We would view those as the starting point.”
Just days after taking office in January, President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP, a 12-nation trade deal his predecessor Barack Obama supported but that hadn’t been approved by Congress. Other nations in the pact, which also included NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico, have expressed interest in trying to salvage the TPP without the U.S. and held talks to that effect in Toronto this week.
Trump’s criticism of TPP has been similar to NAFTA, which he blames for hurting U.S. workers and hollowing out the manufacturing sector. He’s threatened to withdraw from the accord if the U.S. can’t negotiate a new version that reduces its trade deficit, particularly with Mexico.
Ross’s comments indicate the U.S. may look for Mexico and Canada to replicate concessions they made in the TPP negotiations.
For example, Canada offered to compensate dairy farmers in TPP member countries, while Mexico agreed to labour reforms such as changes to protect collective bargaining.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who last week helped persuade Trump not to abandon NAFTA, said Wednesday that the administration would renegotiate the pact with a focus on what has worked and what hasn’t.
Ross was one of several top officials who pointed out NAFTA’s benefits to U.S. agriculture and the potentially disruptive effect of an abrupt withdrawal.
“I tried to demonstrate to him that in the agricultural market sometimes words like ‘withdraw’ or ‘terminate’ can have a major impact on markets,” Perdue told The Associated Press. “I think the president made a very wise decision for the benefit of many agricultural producers across the country.”
Perdue was only in his second day in office at USDA when he found himself urgently arguing agriculture’s case to the president.
Still, he’s supportive of renegotiating the pact and says that while it has been good for Midwestern grain and dairy farmers, it hasn’t been as beneficial for some other growers, including fruit and vegetable producers in South Florida.
“These things will be done individually, whether it’s milk, whether it’s with the Canadians and the Mexicans, whether it’s fruit and vegetables, whether it’s feed grains, whether it’s oilseeds, cotton and the many products that we grow,” Perdue said. “All those will be on the table as we come back and say what’s working and what’s not?”