White House Weighs Nafta-Withdrawal Threat
April 26 2017 - 5:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob M. Schlesinger and Peter Nicholas
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is debating whether to
issue a formal threat to withdraw from the North American Free
Trade Agreement, as part of its strategy to renegotiate the
23-year-old pact with Mexico and Canada, according to White House
officials.
It is unclear whether President Donald Trump will take the
dramatic step of issuing a Nafta withdrawal notice -- and even if
he does, whether he would actually follow up by pulling the U.S.
out of agreement. The pact requires any party to give six months'
notice for withdrawing.
But two people familiar with White House deliberations said the
option would be discussed at a meeting Wednesday of the National
Economic Council.
The White House "is taking a look at all options," said one of
these people. The person noted that Mr. Trump regularly attacked
Nafta as "a disaster" on the campaign trail, and has continued to
do so in the early days of his administration.
As his presidency nears the 100-day mark this Saturday, the
White House is scrambling to show that Mr. Trump has moved to meet
many of his campaign promises, including reorienting American trade
policy.
A Nafta overhaul "is a major campaign pledge of the president
and he's spoken about it throughout the first 100 days," this
person said.
The internal discussion, first reported Wednesday morning by
Politico, touched off a swift backlash from American business
groups and members of Congress, rallying to try to quell the
prospect before it gains traction inside the White House.
The mere speculation of a Nafta pullout jolted financial
markets, with the Mexican peso falling more than 2% against the
dollar before paring losses later in the day (now down 1.6% and no
longer on track for biggest loss in five months). The Canadian
dollar, which has been battered by trade tensions with the U.S.
this week, also edged 0.3% lower.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2017 17:14 ET (21:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.