COMMERCE/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/WILBUR ROSS: “Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defended the Trump administration’s hardball strategy for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, suggesting that the U.S. can pressure Mexico and Canada into big concessions because they have more to lose if the pact collapses…
The likely result, Mr. Ross said, was that the two countries will ‘come to their senses and make a sensible deal.’
President Donald Trump has branded Nafta ‘a disaster,’ and threatened to withdraw unless the two countries agree to rewrite the pact. Negotiations on a new Nafta began in August, and a fifth round of talks is slated to open in Mexico City this week. The parties have said they are aiming to reach a deal by March.
The talks hit a snag during the last round, in Washington in October, after the U.S. put forth a number of proposals that would significantly alter the agreement in ways that the two trading partners have branded unacceptable.”
-Jacob M. Schlesinger, “Commerce Secretary Ross: U.S. Has Leverage to Pressure Mexico, Canada in Nafta Talks,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 14, 2017 03:33pm