Trump tells lawmakers he wants to rewrite NAFTA to add an extra F – for ‘free and fair trade’ because the agreement is ‘very unfair’: ‘It’s been a catastrophe’
By Francesca Chambers, White House Correspondent
DailyMail.com
2 February 2017
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would not only renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, he’d be open to rewriting the entire deal – adding another ‘F’ to the document’s title to include the word ‘fair.’
At a meeting this morning with Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrats, and Congressman Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Trump reiterated his belief that the deal has been a ‘catastrophe.’
‘I have very serious concerns about NAFTA,’ Trump said. ‘I want to change it…and maybe we do a new NAFTA and we add an extra f in the term NAFTA.’
Trump told the room, ‘You know what the f is for right? Free and fair trade. Not just free trade. Free and fair trade. Because it’s very unfair.’
The president has said he’d make trade negotiations a top priority. One of his first acts in office was to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
His White House says it intends to pursue bilateral deals with foreign countries with which it doesn’t have standing agreements.
Trump said Thursday that he would direct his Commerce Secretary designee, Wilbur Ross, who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, to strike new deals with Canada and Mexico that will be of ‘tremendous’ benefit to businesses and their workers.
‘I would like to speed it up if possible. You’re the folks who can do it,’ he told the lawmakers gathered around him.
Trump said he’d put together an ‘all-star team’ to look at the trade agreement and said he was looking to have a deal ready within a 90-day window.
‘We are working very, very hard…We want to get that whole thing kickstarted and going,’ he said. ‘NAFTA has been a catastrophe for our county. It’s been a catastrophe for our workers and our jobs and our companies, they’re leaving our country.’
The Rest…HERE
