Trump suggests NAFTA delay
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. — President Donald Trump intends to delay signing a revised version of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a move aimed at reaching a better deal with Canada and Mexico.
“NAFTA, I could sign it tomorrow, but I’m not happy with it. I want to make it more fair, OK?” Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. He added that he would not sign a new deal until after the midterm elections in November.
Canada on Sunday imposed tariffs on $12.6 billion of U.S. products. China is set to levy tariffs on $34 billion worth of American goods, including soybeans, on Friday, the same day that Trump plans to tax an additional $34 billion worth of Chinese items.
“Every country is calling every day, saying, ‘Let’s make a deal, let’s make a deal.’ It’s going to all work out,” Trump said.
Trump has sought to renegotiate NAFTA to encourage manufacturers to invest more in America and shift production from low-wage Mexico to the United States. The talks have stalled over several issues, including Trump’s insistence on a clause that would end NAFTA every five years unless all three countries agree to sustain it.
Trump has clashed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over trade, with the U.S. president tweeting last month after departing the Group of Seven meetings in Quebec that Trudeau was “weak” and “dishonest.”
Trump and Trudeau spoke by phone late Friday after Canada announced it would impose its own tariffs in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trudeau’s office said the prime minister “conveyed that Canada has had no choice but to announce reciprocal countermeasures” to the U.S. tariffs.
Also on Friday, the European Union threatened that the global community would put tariffs on up to $290 billion of U.S. products if Trump moves forward with tariffs on foreign autos.
“Protective measures would undermine U.S. growth, negatively impact job creation, and not improve the trade balance,” EU leaders wrote in the 11-page document, adding that auto tariffs would “damage further the reputation of the United States.”
Trump replied Sunday that the EU “is possibly as bad [on trade] as China, just smaller.”
The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to hold hearings on auto tariffs late this month and to complete its investigation into auto imports later this summer.
Trump has also asked his staff to prepare a bill that would give him the ability to skirt many World Trade Organization rules that have been in place since 1995, according to a report by Axios confirmed late Sunday by CNN.
The bill, referred to as the United States Fair and Reciprocal Tariff Act, would give the president the authority to renegotiate or apply tariffs as needed to punish individual countries on trade. Analysts say Congress is unlikely to pass the legislation because it would give more authority to the president on trade matters.
Information for this article was contributed by Ken Thomas of The Associated Press; by Ros Krasny and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News; and by Heather Long of The Washington Post.