Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will demand a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
If those other countries refuse the renegotiation, Trump said he would withdraw from the trade pact, which would cause tariffs on imports from those countries and exports from the United States to rise.
{mosads}”I’m going to tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers,” Trump said during remarks at an aluminum facility in Monessen, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
“And I don’t mean just a little bit better, I mean a lot better,” he said.
“If they do not agree to a renegotiation, then I will submit notice under Article 2205 of the NAFTA agreement that America intends to withdraw from the deal.”
Trump’s remarks come on the eve of the start of the North American Leaders summit in Ottawa, Canada. U.S businesses leaders are calling on U.S., Mexican and Canadian leaders to tighten their economic ties in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also said he would kill the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiated by President Obama, which is the biggest trade deal since NAFTA.
The comments suggest Trump is going after blue-collar workers on the left and the right who are upset with free-trade policies as he seeks to make inroads against Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton’s rival in the Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has also criticized NAFTA and the TPP, and some of Trump’s remarks seemed designed to appeal to Sanders supporters.
Clinton opposes the TPP but backed it as Obama’s secretary of State.
Trump argued that Clinton can’t be trusted to not back the TPP if she lands in the White House.
The Chamber of Commerce, which supports free-trade agreements, blasted Trump’s plans on trade in a series of tweets from its account.
Under Trump’s trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy https://t.co/3xcCNgiS2k pic.twitter.com/9jPtGXAOlQ
— U.S. Chamber (@USChamber) June 28, 2016
Even under best case scenario, Trump’s tariffs would strip us of at least 3.5 million jobs https://t.co/3xcCNgiS2k pic.twitter.com/3SSHHqotNv
— U.S. Chamber (@USChamber) June 28, 2016
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) also took to Twitter to slam Trump’s speech and promote the TPP.
Jay Timmons, NAM’s president, said, “Keeping manufacturers on the sidelines of trade is a plan for losing.”
Timmons said Trump should “understand 40 percent of manufacturing jobs are related to exports. We need more exports, not less.”
He also said that Trump “says we’re losing to China. But to win, WE need to write rules on trade — not China.”
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