Sunday, January 22, 2017

Trump to Renegotiate NAFTA

This is going to get interesting.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday he plans talks soon with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"We will be starting negotiations having to do with NAFTA," Trump said at a swearing-in ceremony for his top White House advisers. "We are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border."

NAFTA is a crony trade deal, but it is better than no trade. (SEE: Free Trade, No Trade, Crony Trade and Trump Trade).

There certainly can be a lot of improvement over NAFTA but that improvement would come by moving toward greater free trade. There is no indication that Trump in renegotiating NAFTA will attempt to move it more in the direction of free trade. He appears to be an out and out protectionist.  So much so that he spent a significant part of his inaugural address talking up protectionism (SEE: Donald Trump Begins Inauguration Speech With a Rant Against Free Trade).

I am prepared to be surprised but Trump has given no indication he is in favor of free trade. The renegotiation of NAFTA by Trump could result in protectionismonsim.

 -RW

1 comment:

  1. I hope the Trump apologists who think that he's using the theat of tariffs to force other states to liberalize their economic policies are right, but it will be a surprise, and I will give him credit for being a hell of a bluffer.

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