US, Mexico agree on revised trade deal

[Nafta] has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by Nafta for many years

Donald Trump, US President

mexico city — US President Donald Trump said he would terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement and sign a new trade accord with Mexico, potentially leaving Canada out of the bloc.

Trump announced the agreement with Mexico in a hastily arranged Oval Office event Monday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto joining by conference call. Pena Nieto said he is “quite hopeful” Canada would soon be incorporated in the revised agreement, while Trump said that remains to be seen.

Trump said he would speak with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “in a little while” and hoped to begin negotiations with him “almost immediately.”

As he announced the move, Trump said he would drop the name Nafta from the accord because of its unpopularity.

“We’re going to call it the United States/Mexico Trade Agreement,” he said. Nafta “has a bad connotation because the United States was hurt very badly by Nafta for many years.” The president hailed the Mexico agreement as “a big day for trade.”

Pena Nieto said a final trade deal with the United States and Canada is possible this week, as the US and Mexico wrapped up talks on an updated Nafta.

Pena Nieto tweeted that he had spoken with Trudeau on the phone and encouraged him to return to the negotiating table for a speedy final week of overhauling the Nafta. “I spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the state of the Nafta negotiations and the progress made between Mexico and the United States,” Pena Nieto wrote on Twitter.

“I told him it was important that [Canada] rejoin the process, with the goal of concluding trilateral negotiations this week.”

The three countries have been renegotiating Nafta for just over a year at the behest of Trump.