U.S. wants to insert five-year sunset clause in NAFTA

— The United States is seeking to insert a socalled sunset clause into a new NAFTA, a controversial proposal that would automatically terminate the agreement after five years unless all three member countries agree to extend it.

That proposal has prompted swift resistance. Canadian and Mexican officials brushed it off almost as soon as it was proposed Thursday, calling it a bad idea that would create economic instability and scare businesses away from long-term investments.

The priority was announced earlier in the day by Donald Trump’s commerce secretary. Wilbur Ross confirmed the U.S. will seek some automatic-termination clause to ensure the agreement can be regularly re-evaluated and improved.

“(It) would force a systematic reexamination,” Ross told a forum organized by the website Politico. “You’d have a forum for trying to fix things.”

Ross said U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer agrees it’s a good idea, but conceded that it’s unclear whether Canada and Mexico, the other NAFTA countries, would accept the proposal.

The U.S. ambassadors of Canada and Mexico both appeared on the stage shortly after Ross exited Thursday. Both rejected the idea, saying the business communities would never accept it.

Canada’s David MacNaughton said sunset clauses are usually associated with things you intend to end — not with something like a trade agreement whose inherent point is to project long-term predictability. If the same five-year sunset idea were applied to marriages, the divorce rate would be far higher, MacNaughton joked.