- Aug 6, 2012
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So while the media tries and put the focus on anything but what matters to Americans, NAFTA begins its renegotiations today. Trump has signaled immediately that he wants an overhaul, and the networks don't want average Americans to hear this message as it is too "pro-American".
Hear Mr. Lighthizer in his opening:
NAFTA has ‘fundamentally failed,’ Trump’s top trade official says to open renegotiations | Toronto Star
ASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade official opened the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with harsh criticism of the deal, saying it has “fundamentally failed many, many Americans” and cannot not be fixed with mere “tweaking.”
“We cannot ignore the huge trade deficits, the lost manufacturing jobs, the businesses that have closed or moved, because of incentives, intended or not, in the current agreement. The numbers are clear,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in his introductory speech. “The U.S. government has certified that at least 700,000 Americans have lost their jobs due to changing trade flows resulting from NAFTA. Many people believe the number is much, much bigger than that.”
Trump, Lighthizer said, “is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and a couple of updated chapters.”
Lighthizer’s remarks underscored the vast gulf, in perception and rhetoric at least, between the U.S. and the other two parties to the agreement, Canada and Mexico, whose representatives hailed NAFTA in their own opening statements at a hotel in Washington.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland called NAFTA “an engine of job-creation and economic growth.” She argued that trade between Canada and the U.S. has been “almost perfectly” balanced — though she pointedly noted that Canada does not believe trade deficits or surpluses are the best way to measure if a trade relationship is working.
“Canada is and always has been a trading nation. Our approach stems from one essential insight. We pursue trade, free and fair, knowing it is not a zero-sum game,” Freeland said.
Hear Mr. Lighthizer in his opening:
NAFTA has ‘fundamentally failed,’ Trump’s top trade official says to open renegotiations | Toronto Star
ASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade official opened the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with harsh criticism of the deal, saying it has “fundamentally failed many, many Americans” and cannot not be fixed with mere “tweaking.”
“We cannot ignore the huge trade deficits, the lost manufacturing jobs, the businesses that have closed or moved, because of incentives, intended or not, in the current agreement. The numbers are clear,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in his introductory speech. “The U.S. government has certified that at least 700,000 Americans have lost their jobs due to changing trade flows resulting from NAFTA. Many people believe the number is much, much bigger than that.”
Trump, Lighthizer said, “is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and a couple of updated chapters.”
Lighthizer’s remarks underscored the vast gulf, in perception and rhetoric at least, between the U.S. and the other two parties to the agreement, Canada and Mexico, whose representatives hailed NAFTA in their own opening statements at a hotel in Washington.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland called NAFTA “an engine of job-creation and economic growth.” She argued that trade between Canada and the U.S. has been “almost perfectly” balanced — though she pointedly noted that Canada does not believe trade deficits or surpluses are the best way to measure if a trade relationship is working.
“Canada is and always has been a trading nation. Our approach stems from one essential insight. We pursue trade, free and fair, knowing it is not a zero-sum game,” Freeland said.
