Trump Sends Nafta Renegotiation Notice to Congress

WASHINGTON (TIP): The Trump administration gave Congress official notice on Thursday that it plans to renegotiate Nafta, but provided only the vaguest of hints about modest changes President Trump would seek to an agreement that he has called “the worst trade deal ever.” In a brief letter to lawmakers, Robert Lighthizer, the newly confirmed United States trade representative, said the administration aimed to support better-paying jobs and economic growth through unspecified improvements to Nafta that would modernize the 23-year-old agreement. But the notice – a drastically scaled-back version of a draft the administration circulated this year – promised no major modifications of the sort that the president has hinted he will seek.

Mr. Trump had threatened to withdraw completely from the agreement, only to relent in late April when the leaders of Canada and Mexico, the other parties to the deal, called and asked him to renegotiate instead.

The president, whose campaign trail vows to tear up Nafta appealed to his base of disaffected working-class voters aggrieved by globalization, is under mounting pressure to follow through on his pledge. But Mr. Trump faces stiff resistance from business-minded Republicans in Congress and sectors that fear major changes would harm their bottom lines.”Today, President Trump fulfilled one of his key promises to the American people,” Mr. Lighthizer said on Thursday. “For years, politicians have called for the renegotiation of this agreement, but President Trump is the first to follow through with that promise.”

The move was met with skepticism by organizations that have long pressed for major changes to Nafta and have argued that Mr. Trump had already fallen short of his promises on trade.

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