Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
President Donald Trump said that NAFTA negotiators are “pretty close” to some kind of sunset clause.
President says partners will pay price if no deal
LA MALBAIE, Quebec — President Donald Trump said Saturday that NAFTA negotiators are “pretty close” to agreeing on some kind of sunset clause, a sticking point in talks, while warning the three-way agreement can survive only if major changes are made.
“Two things can happen on NAFTA. We’ll either leave it the way it is as a threesome deal” and “change it very substantially,” Trump said Saturday before leaving the Group of 7 leaders’ meeting. Otherwise, “we’re going to make a deal directly with Canada, directly with Mexico.”
The North American Free Trade Agreement was a key topic when Trump met Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump said later that they had a “very, very good meeting on NAFTA.” An effort last month to reach a deal that could pass the current U.S. Congress by year-end has stalled, in part after Trudeau’s final push ran up against Trump’s insistence on a five-year sunset clause under which the deal would be renegotiated or killed after five years.
Any NAFTA deal will have a sunset provision, Trump said Saturday, though he indicated that some people are pushing against a five-year expiration. “We’re pretty close on the sunset division,” he said.
The president also signaled that the U.S.’ NAFTA partners would pay a bigger price if there’s no agreement.
“If a deal isn’t made, that would be a very bad thing for Canada and it would be a very bad thing for Mexico,” Trump said. “For the United States, frankly, it would be a good thing. But I’m not looking to do that. I’m not looking to play that game.”
The window to pass a deal in this Congress has almost certainly closed, observers say, and Mexico will elect a new president on July 1. That means the NAFTA process — negotiating a deal, and then passing it in each country — is almost certain to run into 2019.