White House Leans Toward Continued 3-Way NAFTA Deal

U.S. trade officials are signaling the Trump administration would prefer to retain but tweak the three-way North American Free Trade Agreement rather than negotiate separate deals with Canada and Mexico, Reuters reports.

Senate Finance Committee members say Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and newly confirmed Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer indicate a preference for a revised trilateral deal that would continue to link all three countries in a North American trade bloc.

Ross and Lighthizer met with the committee as a step toward launching the NAFTA renegotiation process, which specifies a 90-day “consultation” period. Mexico Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters on Tuesday he expects the White House to confirm early next week that it intends to reopen the 23-year-old pact. Doing so would indicate that talks will begin in August.

President Trump repeatedly vowed during his campaign last year to either quit NAFTA or revise the agreement to make it more advantageous to the U.S.