“We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.”<\/p>\n
Minutes later, a rewritten White House website:<\/p>\n
“President Trump is committed to renegotiating (the North American Free Trade Agreement.) If our partners refuse a renegotiation that gives American workers a fair deal, then the president will give notice of the United States’ intent to withdraw from NAFTA.”<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech<\/strong>16:36<\/p>\n So it’s on, then.\u00a0But what, exactly, does renegotiating mean?<\/p>\n The new White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Thursday that Trump would not wait for his cabinet to be confirmed before he acted\u00a0on two priorities:\u00a0<\/p>\n “The key thing is not to panic,” says Mark Warner, a Toronto-based trade lawyer who practices in both Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n Trump doesn’t mention termination first. That’s plan B.<\/p>\n But threatening termination does focus minds.<\/p>\n Canada and Mexico huddled<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0agreed to come to the table<\/a>, something not everyone thought was wise<\/a>. (Mexico’s president agreed\u00a0there was room to improve<\/a>\u00a0the trade agreement even before Trump’s election.)<\/p>\n Trump supporters partied after Friday’s inauguration, celebrating things like his pledge to put ‘America first’ in trade negotiations. (Lucy Nicholson\/Reuters)<\/p>\n Trump’s strategy, as described in his book\u00a0The Art of the Deal<\/em>, is to soften up the other side by making them sweat, Warner said.<\/p>\n Could he raise the stakes by giving notice of termination first?<\/p>\n “I suspect that Canada will go crazy if he does it,” Warner said. “It’s just a negotiating tactic.”<\/p>\n Negotiations require negotiators.<\/p>\n Yet\u00a0a confirmation hearing date for Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s nominee for\u00a0trade representative, hasn’t been set.<\/p>\n Simon Lester, a trade policy analyst with the Washington-based Cato Institute, believes assembling the U.S. trade representative’s team could\u00a0take a few months.<\/p>\n All the departments and agencies \u2014 state, commerce, labour, environmental protection and more \u2014 must get on the same page before negotiating positions are\u00a0finalized.<\/p>\n Then there’s America’s\u00a0division of powers.<\/p>\n The president’s\u00a0in charge of foreign policy. But Congress controls the money \u2014\u00a0and from that, has\u00a0authority over\u00a0things like tariffs.<\/p>\n President Barack Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman sat with other leaders from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at November’s APEC Summit knowing there was little chance Congress would hold a ratification vote following Trump’s election. The deal was intended to be Obama’s trade legacy. (Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters)<\/p>\n Barack\u00a0Obama\u00a0needed to go to Congress to get “fast-track” authority to\u00a0negotiate the TPP \u2014 a process used in trade talks since the Nixon administration to make sure trade officials don’t agree to things Congress\u00a0later tries\u00a0to amend.<\/p>\n Once negotiated, Congress has\u00a0to take it or leave it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Could the TPP\u00a0authorization\u00a0also cover\u00a0NAFTA? Lester thinks Trump’s team might propose that, to expedite things.<\/p>\n Otherwise: “We could spend the next two or three years, I think, just talking about what we want\u00a0NAFTA\u00a0to say,” Lester said.<\/p>\n If the renegotiation objectives are modest, Congress may oblige. NAFTA\u00a0provisions allow for straightforward amendments.<\/p>\n But a fundamental overhaul?\u00a0<\/p>\n “They’ll definitely weigh in,” Lester said.\u00a0“If they object, they could definitely put up a fight.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Behind-the-scenes talks are probably\u00a0underway with Congressional leaders, Lester said.<\/p>\n “I’m not sure how much (the incoming administration)\u00a0understand(s) what a trade negotiation looks like,” Lester said. “In their mind, they do business deals and you can get those done in three months.”<\/p>\n Happy to be joined at #inauguration2017<\/a> by my colleagues @HarjitSajjan<\/a>, @jimcarr_wpg<\/a>, @AndrewLeslieMP<\/a>! #CanadaUS<\/a> #cdnpoli<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/hSewBgh7PE<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 “If the Americans open NAFTA wholesale, depending on how ambitious they want to be, it will take years,” said\u00a0Meredith Lilly, a former trade adviser to Stephen Harper.<\/p>\n “There are many members of Congress that are not unhappy about NAFTA, so it will not be an easy road,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year ago it seemed NAFTA\u00a0might\u00a0be superseded by the TPP. All\u00a0three NAFTA countries were onboard.<\/p>\n Now it’s the other way around.<\/p>\n At his confirmation hearing Thursday, treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin said the TPP could be a “starting point” for NAFTA talks.<\/p>\n Already-agreed-upon TPP chapters \u2014\u00a0on labour, environmental standards, intellectual property<\/a>, or e-commerce \u2014 could migrate.<\/p>\n If\u00a0seen as minor amendments, TPP\u00a0text\u00a0could become NAFTA annexes or side letters.<\/p>\n But it won’t all translate.<\/p>\n TPP bargaining concessions made to achieve gains from non-NAFTA\u00a0countries might be off the table, such as the\u00a0market access to Canada’s\u00a0supply-managed\u00a0dairy, egg and poultry sectors<\/a>\u00a0given up in return for lower\u00a0Asian\u00a0tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n “I think that it would be extremely risky to open up agriculture chapters,” Lilly said. “(All three countries) have protectionist sentiments. If you’re going to get, you also have to give.”<\/p>\n When Brian Mulroney signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1992, the need for clauses on things like e-commerce was scarcely imagineable. (Frank Gunn\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n It’s not like NAFTA is just fine, as is.<\/p>\n Consider its labour mobility provisions, such as the list of professions that qualify for temporary entry to the U.S.<\/p>\n If a job didn’t exist in the early ’90s \u2014 like digital technology worker, or nurse practitioner\u00a0\u2014 it’s not listed.<\/p>\n Canada may push to open up government procurement so companies compete on cross-border infrastructure projects \u2014 something its <\/span>European Union trade deal<\/a> achieved.<\/p>\n But fighting “Buy America” rules has been a tough slog for years.\u00a0Trump’s “America first” attitude<\/a> doubles down.<\/p>\n Leaked memos\u00a0\u2014 early<\/a> and recent<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 suggested U.S. priorities\u00a0for renegotiation:<\/p>\n Are these leaks credible? “We don’t know,” Lilly said.<\/p>\n Commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross told\u00a0his confirmation\u00a0that everything’s up for grabs.<\/p>\n “If they’re looking for short-term gains, they’ll want to keep the negotiations fairly tight, and really focus on things that are going to make a big difference for the U.S. economy,” Lilly said.<\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/trump-nafta-renegotiation-explainer-1.3945006?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The soundbites\u00a0from Donald Trump’s\u00a0inauguration speech could\u00a0strike fear into a free trader’s heart. “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries\u00a0making our products, stealing our companies\u00a0and destroying our jobs,”\u00a0he vowed\u00a0Friday. “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.” Minutes later, a rewritten White House website: “President Trump is committed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-64272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Key is not to panic’<\/h2>\n
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![\"USA-TRUMP\/INAUGURATION-BALLS\"](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/69b87_usa-trump-inauguration-balls.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPresident\u00a0can’t act alone<\/h2>\n
![\"APEC-SUMMIT\/\"](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/69b87_apec-summit.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWill Congress oblige?<\/h2>\n
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\n @cafreeland<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTPP is dead. Long live\u00a0TPP<\/h2>\n
NAFTA\u00a0needs updating<\/h2>\n
![\"NAFTA](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/bec6d_nafta-signing.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n