Trump says he won’t back out of NAFTA

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday told the leaders of Mexico and Canada that he will not immediately pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, just hours after administration officials said he was considering a draft executive order to do just that.

The White House made the surprise announcement in a read-out of calls between Trump, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“President Trump agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries,” said the White House.

Trump said he believes “the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.”

The Mexican government confirmed the conversation in a statement issued late Wednesday.

“The leaders agreed on the convenience of maintaining the North American Free Trade Agreement and working together with Canada to carry out a successful renegotiation for the benefit of all three countries,” the statement read.

Trudeau’s office issued a brief statement saying “the two leaders continued their dialogue on Canada-U.S. trade relations, with the Prime Minister reinforcing the importance of stability and job growth in our trade relations.”

The White House announcement came hours after administration officials said Trump was considering a draft executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the deal — though administration officials cautioned it was just one of a number of options being discussed by the president and his staff.

Trump railed against the decades-old trade deal during his campaign, describing it as a “disaster.”

Senior White House officials had spent recent days discussing steps that could be taken to start the process of renegotiating or withdrawing from NAFTA before the end of Trump’s first 100 days in office, according to a person familiar with the president’s thinking.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that NAFTA is bad for the U.S.

The decision came days after the administration announced it would slap hefty tariffs on softwood lumber being imported from Canada. Trump has also been railing against changes in Canadian milk product pricing that he says are hurting the American dairy industry.

In January he pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which would have been the largestever trade pact as measured by the gross domestic product of the 12 intended member countries in the Americas and Asia.

NAFTA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and went into effect in 1994.