NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WTO: “Trade pacts typically require years of detailed negotiations. The North American Free Trade Agreement needed two years. Creation of the World Trade Organization took eight. The Trump administration wants to remake global trade in a matter of months. To secure agreements quickly, the White House has taken a contentious approach to negotiations not seen in decades, threatening allies and adversaries alike with harsh sanctions like tariffs and quotas. Those tactics have returned a few early concessions from trading partners, including South Korea, whose revised trade agreement was formally announced by the United States on Wednesday [3-28-18]. But it remains to be seen how much American workers would benefit from these deals and whether the global trading system can sustain the chaos.”
–Keith Bradsher, “Trade Deals Take Years. Trump Wants to Remake Them in Months.,” The New York Times online, Mar. 28, 2018