Last night we reported that Trump had changed his mind and said he wasn’t leaving NAFTA, and that both Mexico and Canada have agreed to negotiate a new NAFTA agreement. Trump tweeted this morning explaining how this came about:
I received calls from the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate. I agreed..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
…subject to the fact that if we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate NAFTA. Relationships are good-deal very possible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
As you can see the termination of NAFTA is still possible if Trump can’t reach a ‘good deal’ with Canada and Mexico.
As I’ve said before, I don’t trust Trump’s instincts on trade after all of his rhetoric and threats against American companies wanting to do business in Mexico. But I’m not going to say this is wholly a bad thing yet. He’s got them to the negotiation table so let’s see what happens.
Hopefully he understands by now that the consumer is the one who suffers with higher tariffs and thus won’t start a trade war with both Mexico and Canada.