President Trump made it well known during the campaign what he thought about our many free trade agreements and even said on a number of occasions that “our free trade has led to a lot of bad things.” Now that Trumpcare has been put on hold for the foreseeable future, our president seems ready to tackle all 14 of our free trade agreements, and is actually, according to senior administration officials, “preparing new executive orders to re-examine the free trade deals as well as government procurement policies.”
President Trump made it well known during the campaign what he thought about our many free trade agreements and even said on a number of occasions that “our free trade has led to a lot of bad things.” Now that Trumpcare has been put on hold for the foreseeable future, our president seems ready to tackle all 14 of our free trade agreements, and is actually, according to senior administration officials, “preparing new executive orders to re-examine the free trade deals as well as government procurement policies.”
At the top of President Trump’s list to tackle is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an agreement between the US, Mexico, and Canada. According to officials, he would like to “make the terms more favorable to Americans.” Additionally, the officials also claim that the “trade deal and procurement review orders were among several executive actions that the Trump administration is preparing on trade.”
However, many say the administration’s move to re-examine all of our trade deals, “which affect 20 countries from the Americas to Asia,” is merely symbolic because Trump has announced many times before that he would like to renegotiate NAFTA and improve our trade deals, many of which he believes are one-sided and no longer benefit the US as they’re currently written. Wondering what countries we have free trade deals with, other than Canada and Mexico? Well, the long list includes Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru, Singapore and South Korea.
The administration might also be eager to jump on the free trade reform train because it would align with “Trump’s Buy American, Hire American campaign push and could win some allies among Democrats in Congress.” Senators like Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeff Merkley of Oregon are particularly eager to see changes made to NAFTA, like excluding “government contracts from NAFTA” and restricting “waivers that allow more foreign companies to bid on public procurements.”
However, not everyone is one board. Republican Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas sees value in our current trade deals, and wants to “impress upon the White House the importance of trade deals to boost agricultural exports, including a glut of Kansas wheat.” But if we’ve learned anything about President Trump since he’s been in office, it’s that he’s going to do what he wants. But one thing’s for certain — in re-examining and improving on our many agreements, it will be interesting to see how all of the countries we have agreements with will react to any changes.
Sources:
Trump Is Now Preparing Executive Orders to Review All 14 U.S. Trade Deals
Join the conversation!