Trump Announces ‘United States-Mexico Trade Agreement,’ Negotiations With Canada Will Begin Soon
Trump tweeted this morning, “A big deal looking good with Mexico!”
President Donald Trump announced America has entered a “United States-Mexico Trade Agreement” from the White House, dumping the name NAFTA due to bad connotations.
Trump hopes to start negotiations with Canada ASAP. He said “we’ll see” if Canada will join this agreement or have a separate agreement.
The President will make an announcement regarding trade at 11 AM from the Oval Office.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2018
Trump said the NAFTA name will go “because it has a bad connotation” since NAFTA has treated America badly. From The Associated Press:
President Donald Trump says he’ll be “terminating” the North American Free Trade Agreement as he pursues a deal with Mexico and starts negotiations with Canada.
Trump said Monday during an Oval Office event that he’ll be calling the emerging agreement the “United States-Mexico Trade Agreement.” He says it will mark the end of the NAFTA name.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was on speakerphone and says he hopes NAFTA partner Canada will eventually be incorporated into the deal from Trump.
Adam Austen, a spokesman for the Canadian Foreign Minister, says Canada had been in regular contact with the NAFTA negotiators.
He says, “We will only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class,” adding that, “Canada’s signature is required.”
One of Trump’s officials said he expects the official signing will take place in November since Congress has to approve any trade detail. Depending on the timetable, he will exterminate the NAFTA deal and enter into this deal with Mexico.
Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any details about the deal, but some news organizations wrote about some. From Fox News:
U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lightizer and Mexican Secretary of Economy Idelfonso Guajardo were seen walked together Monday into the White House without talking to reporters. The delegation also included Jesus Seade, a World Trade Organization veteran tapped by Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as his future chief trade negotiator.
The U.S. on Thursday agreed to keep the 2.5 percent tariff currently applied under World Trade Organization rules if the cars are made at factories that already exist, which leaves open the possibility that automobiles that are built at new plants could face tariffs of 20 percent to 25 percent.
Bloomberg reported that the Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador predicted a change to the sunset clause:
Jesus Seade, the Nafta representative for Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has predicted that the nations will agree on a softened version of a so-called “sunset clause,” an automatic expiration after five years — a key U.S. demand. The recent push for a deal is in part to have it signed before the new president takes office in December.
That would be essential, as the sunset clause was a major sticking point — erupting, for instance, at the Group of Seven summit. Other key issues are Chapter 19 anti-dumping panels, which the U.S. wants to kill but which may be a deal-breaker for Canada, as well as Canada’s dairy sector, which Trump is targeting.
Pres. Trump has conference call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to congratulate him on new trade deal: “I thought we would congratulate each other before it got out, & I know we will have a formal news conference in the not-too-distant future.” https://t.co/MKggitgOVx pic.twitter.com/d6cqfnaMzU
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 27, 2018
“It is our wish, Mr. President, that now Canada will also be able to be incorporated in all of this .. And I assume that they are going to carry out negotiations of the sensitive bilateral issues between Canada and the United States,” Peña Nieto says https://t.co/MKggitgOVx pic.twitter.com/6c6FQSh3KT
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 27, 2018
“As far as Canada is concerned, we haven’t started with Canada yet. We wanted to do Mexico and see if that was possible to do … Canada will start negotiations shortly,” @POTUS says during trade announcement https://t.co/MKggitgOVx pic.twitter.com/whRQohVbmo
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 27, 2018
Previous Reporting
President @realDonaldTrump is speaking now with the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, regarding a trade agreement between the United States and Mexico.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2018
Trump tweeted this morning:
A big deal looking good with Mexico!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2018
The stock market has reacted positively to the announcement. From WDIV:
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 index climbed 18 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,892 as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 208 points, or 0.8 percent, to 26,002. The Nasdaq composite gained 55 points, or 0.7 percent, to 8,001. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks added 9 points, or 0.5 percent, to1,735.
The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high Friday, beating the record it set in late January. The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 also set new highs, but the Dow remains about 2 percent below the record it set in late January.
Canadian dollar dips slightly, Mexican peso rises as Trump announces new trade agreement https://t.co/MljYx5WHBI pic.twitter.com/rh1ECXeYIH
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) August 27, 2018
It looks like the NAFTA name will change:
BREAKING: President Trump has reportedly reached an agreement on a new trade deal with Mexico that will not include Canada or bear the NAFTA name https://t.co/JTvkH5W3kJ pic.twitter.com/Fm5n83tNxj
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 27, 2018
From Politico:
U.S. trade negotiators briefed congressional staff this morning on the details of the agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.
Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo said this morning that there’s one U.S.-Mexico issue that remains to be fully resolved before the talks between the two countries are complete. But he cautioned that Canada must still go over all the solutions that the U.S. and Mexico reached. Canada is expected to return to the negotiating table as soon as the two countries announce a breakthrough in the U.S.-Mexico talks.
“A lot of these things imply Canada. Therefore, until we finish with the position of Canada, we will not be able to disclose the elements,” Guajardo said.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that once the US and Mexico resolve their issues, “Canada will be joining the talks to work on both bilateral issues and our trilateral issues.”
A senior US official told Reuters that the US is “now inviting the Canadians in as well” and acknowledged that issues remain with our northern neighbor, but that “they could be resolved very quickly.”
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Comments
The NBC anchor mentioned the Canadian Foreign Minister might be coming to Washington today or tomorrow. Sorry, she’s in Europe, maybe Friday. A news anchor might be expected to know something like that.
HOORAY!
Have seen the President’s tweets on the economy?
https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/trump-tweet-economy-august-2018-2.jpg
As far as Kanada……the Kanucks have missed the subway train……
Canada will have to try and jump on a train that is already leaving the station. And, they missed their chance to sit in first class.
The Canadians have behaved very badly throughout these negotiations. They have made promises that turned out to be blatant lies.
They pretty much eliminated any good faith assumptions for the US Canadian Trade Pact. And, now they will have to live with it.
Bringing them in the deal will be good for them, and good for us. It’s likely to happen.
The only know what’s before them on the tele-prompter!
If Congress needs to approve the deal look for the Leftists, and some NeverTrump RINO’s, to oppose it because Trump negotiated it.
How about the wall? Was the wall talked about? That’s all I really care about concerning Mexico.
The Wall won’t happen if it has to depend on any sort of treaty or agreement with Mexico.
To be of any real use, it has to be a unilateral wall.
MSM on suicide watch.
So, reading on the lines, this is going to be a trilateral agreement.
The sunset clause is important. I wonder what happened to it. it’s important because it gives us leverage to insist on change and not merely beg for changes at the end of 5 years.
Of course, if we don’t have good negotiators – if we go back to the “Caroline Kennedy” model of appointments, then it doesn’t matter what we get, when the time comes we’re in a bad place.
M. Chastain wrote, “Depending on the timetable, he will exterminate the NAFTA deal and enter in this deal with Mexico.”
It may have been a typo, but I prefer ‘exterminate’ to ‘terminate’ in this particular instance.
“Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that once the US and Mexico resolve their issues, “Canada will be joining the talks to work on both bilateral issues and our trilateral issues.”
Threesomes never end well. I recommend two bi-lateral agreements as opposed to a tri-lat. There’ fewer moving parts and easier to nail down partner specific details.
Granted, it’s 2 treaties to ram through the Senate, but ol’ ‘cocaine’ Mitch is a master at herding cats, and will be glad for the spotlight.
I simply hope it’s not more Trumpian wishful thinking that will fizzle like the Singapore Swindle. We need some homeruns, Slugger!
Ol’ purple Crystia has been caught in the same lie several times now.
Take a number.
PLEASE STOP THE WINNING!
CAN’T
TAKE
ANY
MORE
WINNING!
Just kidding – keep the winning rolling…
Canada chose to be d!cks about it – sending their midget to try and manipulate congress and the (evil) chamber of commerce. When we entered into direct negotiations with MEX, they started calling and were told – “uh, yeah, we’ll call back soon, kinda busy right now in mexico.
Mexico came to the table first – they get the better deal. You’d have thought, after EU, Germany, France, Italy, Iran, Turkey and everyone else, Canada would have WISED UP – but NOOOOO.
Playing chicken with THE MASTER, puts you IN THE DITCH. Let us know when you climb out. Call my secretary and she’ll check out calendar.
How’s that socialism working for you NOW – eh, Justin, eh, eh?
R
Imagine if Odumbo was still president. Or if klinton was. Or mccain. Or Jeb!
What a joke The Donald is proving these corrupt hacks to be. (Well, in Odumbo’s case, he doesn’t even get a ‘hack’ rating – he’s that far in the basement – alongside maxine waters.)
This deal is not NAFTA, nor is it an trilateral trade deal. When the US and Canada complete a trade deal, it will most likely be a bilateral one. Trump does not really like multilateral trade deals, as they dilute the economic power of the US. Also, the US and Mexico do not need Canada’s permission for any trade deal between their parties.
We’ll have to wait and see the language inherent in the deal as well as an analysis of what changes the trade restrictions will generate, before we can accurately assess how good this deal is for the country. However, it is probably going to be beneficial to the US, in both the short term and the long term.
It’s almost like we have a President that actually knows what the hell he’s doing. It’s like that time in the 7th grade when the optometrist gave me contact lenses for the first time and I could see what the world really looked like.
It’s a strange and fantastic sensation. (sorry, no tingles. I’m not a sycophant)
Andy, I agree with you. The competence is refreshing!
Somebody tell me why anybody is special.
We don’t need and special deals.