WASHINGTON: The Trump administration will enforce trade rules more aggressively than any previous government in its efforts to reduce the trade deficit, but is not seeking a dispute, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.
Ross also said he hopes this week to resolve delays in Congress that will allow the White House to give formal notification of the intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, which would start the 90-day clock before the talks could begin.
The administration has not yet decided whether to keep Nafta as a three-country deal “or to pursue two matching bilaterals,” Ross said in a speech to business leaders and diplomats at a Council of the Americas conference.
Nafta is “at best out of date and at worst did not accomplish some of its most important goals,” Ross said of the trade pact that President Donald Trump calls a disaster for the United States.
And “any agreement can be updated to reflect changes in all the various economies, and to correct unintended oversights” from the original deal, he said.
Ross also said the administration wants to conclude the new Nafta as soon as possible and will push for a “far more aggressive meeting schedule then has been the norm.”
He noted that his Mexican counterpart, Luis Videgaray Caso, said the new deal should be completed by the end of the year.
Canada Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne defended Nafta, however, saying it benefitted all the partners and created North American production chains.
“Nafta has been an excellent agreement that has benefitted all sides,” amounting to $1 trillion in trade annually — four times more than before the agreement was signed — he told the conference.
— Reuters
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