U.S. Gets Tough in NAFTA Talks

The U.S. is insisting on major changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement as the first round of talks wrapped up in Washington, D.C.

Discussions will move to Mexico on Sept. 1-5, then continue in Canada late next month before returning to Washington in October.

Negotiations got off to a hostile start last week when U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer reiterated that President Trump “is not interested in a mere tweaking of a few provisions and a couple of updated chapters.” Trump campaigned on a promise to overhaul to bolster jobs in the U.S. or quit NAFTA entirely.

Canada and Mexico outlined a sharply different view that shuns fundamental changes but seeks updates to several operational aspects of the 23-year-old pact. Both countries strongly oppose the Trump administration’s desire to allow the U.S. to set its own local content requirements well above the current 62.5% threshold that enables goods to ship duty-free.

Alan Deardorff, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, tells The Detroit News that the Trump approach appears to assume that Canada and Mexico ultimately will accept major modifications to NAFTA rather than abandon the agreement entirely.