President Donald Trump told the leaders of Canada and Mexico Wednesday he was not immediately planning to end the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact which he railed against as a candidate and as recently as last week declared was harmful to United States workers.
The heated rhetoric came amid fresh attacks from the US president against Canada's dairy industry, and just months after a warm meeting between Mr Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington, where Mr Trump said the US-Canada trade relationship only needed "tweaking".
"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.
However, many people saw the Trans-Pacific Partnership, another trade agreement tossed out by the Trump administration, as that renegotiation and as a "super NAFTA" since all of the NAFTA countries were involved in the TPP.
The president has long derided NAFTA, calling the landmark 1994 agreement a "disaster for our country" that has gutted America's manufacturing sector. It removes tariffs and allows a free flow of goods between the three partners.
Trump had threatened to renegotiate the NAFTA pact during the election campaign as he said it had destroyed American jobs, although he has backed off tough action in trade since taking office in January.
Altemus said that the Montana wood products industry has been especially hard hit by the influx of Canadian products.
The administration following through on the order would ultimately signal America's intent to leave a major trade pact with Canada and Mexico.
El Clasico: Real Madrid 2-3 Barcelona: Messi Surprises Madrid
He started the game well and then the injuries we can't control. "The way we played, we deserved to win by a large margin". The social media world explodes with Messi's El Clasico victor , Tony Adams keeps up his dancing, and more in the Sweeper.
"Fully withdrawing from NAFTA - rather than carefully renegotiating it - would create chaos for North Dakota farmers, ranchers and workers", said Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Ag committee.
But the person, along with an administration official, who both spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, had said a number of options remained on the table, and stressed discussions are ongoing about the best way to proceed.
But late Wednesday Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross brushed off the reports as "rumor".
According to The Washington Post Trump is expected to tell Congress that he intends to re-negotiate the deal, but also hold the threat of exiting the agreement to gain more concessions from Mexico and Canada. John McCain of Arizona. Timber and milk, however, are not covered by NAFTA.
Growing appetite for risk meant safe-haven assets fell out of favor, with US 10-year Treasury yields US10YT=RR firming to 2.34 percent from 2.23 percent on Friday.
Altemus said the US wood products industry has always known Canada subsidizes its softwood lumber industry. "But the fact that the USA dollar is so much better, the Canadians can make money".
President Trump unveiled a new tax of up to 24 percent on imported Canadian soft timber, claiming Canada's lumber industry is government subsidized. Ottawa shields its dairy farmers from foreign competition, regulating prices and production and taxing imports heavily. Trump has already removed the USA from another massive trade pact, the Trans Pacific Partnership, which was negotiated under President Barack Obama.
Comments