Trump attention back on NAFTA
TRUMP TRADE CZAR NOW IN PLACE; PRESIDENT SAYS HE WANTS ‘MASSIVE’ NAFTA CHANGES
President Donald Trump says he’s ready to start a major renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, now that his trade czar has achieved his long-awaited confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
The upper chamber voted Thursday with a large bipartisan majority of 82-14 to approve Robert Lighthizer, giving the administration its U.S. trade representative and allowing it to finally kickstart its NAFTA process.
The president told an interviewer with The Economist that he intends to proceed quickly thereafter: Trump plans to file a 90day notice with Congress, work with it on negotiating priorities, and start talks with Canada and Mexico later this year.
“The clock starts ticking (with Lighthizer’s confirmation),” Trump told the magazine before the vote. The administration has begun signalling that it wants significant changes in a range of areas, including dairy, lumber, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and the disputeresolution system. Trump interjected when the interviewer suggested it sounds like he wants a big renegotiation.
“Big isn’t a good enough word,” the president replied. “Massive.” But that desire for a “massive” renegotiation is butting up against the mundane realities of the political calendar. The U.S. and Mexico have both expressed a desire to get a deal by early next year, before the Mexican election. Few observers believe a substantive renegotiation is possible within a few months.
Trump repeated the story in that interview of how he almost withdrew from NAFTA last month. It’s a story he’s told several times.
He described an amazing coincidence: Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto called him, one after the other, and both told him almost the same exact thing as they urged him to reconsider.
“I have a very good relationship with Justin and a very good relationship with the president of Mexico,” Trump said.
“It was an amazing thing. They called separately 10 minutes apart. I just put down the phone with the president of Mexico when the prime minister of Canada called. And they both asked almost identical questions: ‘We would like to know if it would be possible to negotiate as opposed to a termination.’
“And I said, ‘Yes, it is. Absolutely.’ So we did that and we’ll start.”
There’s a simple explanation for that coincidence: It wasn’t a coincidence.
Trump’s own son-in-law Jared Kushner set up the Trudeau call.
Around 6 p.m. on April 26, Kushner phoned a prime ministerial aide, told her there was an immediate window to speak with Trump, and she conveyed the news to Trudeau. Sources from both countries have confirmed that Kushner facilitated the call. In the White House version, Kushner was helping out, responding to a request earlier in the day from the Canadians to speak.
One source familiar with the thinking of both governments offered a theory for what’s happening: Trump wanted to take credit, before his 100th day in office, for forcing Canada and Mexico into a renegotiation.