Trump’s Commerce Pick Says Renegotiating NAFTA Will Be A Priority

By Caitlin Mac Neal

December 1, 2016 7:50 a.m.

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Wilbur Ross, Donald Trump’s selection to lead the Commerce Department, on Wednesday evening indicated that the Trump administration will make renegotiating NAFTA a priority.

“We’re working out the fine-point details, but NAFTA is logical starting point,” Ross told CNN when asked about his priorities.

Trump made trade one of his biggest issues on the campaign trail, and a draft memo from Trump’s transition team obtained by CNN in November shows that the President-elect may start the process to renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA within the first 100 days.

Ross, who has known Trump for a while, told CNN on Wednesday that Trump is a great negotiator.

“I’ve negotiated with him over the years and he is not a bluffer. So if he says he will do something in a negotiation, not– I’m not talking about a campaign speech, in an actual negotiation, if he says, ‘If you don’t do this, I’ll do that,’ you bet your booty he will do it,” Ross said.

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Caitlin Mac Neal (@caitlinmacneal) is TPM's special projects editor, based in Washington, D.C. She first came to TPM as a newswriter, and has written for HuffPost, the Sunlight Foundation and Slate.

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Notable Replies

steviedee111 says:

December 1, 2016
“I’ve negotiated with him over the years and he is not a bluffer. So if he says he will do something in a negotiation, not– I’m not talking about a campaign speech, in an actual negotiation, if he says, ‘If you don’t do this, I’ll do that,’ you bet your booty he will do it,” Ross said.
```
Translation: Don't pay attention to anything he said in the campaign, more likely than not it was hyperbolic bullshit he may or may not intend to follow through on.
```
brooklyndweller says:

December 1, 2016

It’s a foregone conclusion that Rump walks away from TPP and China is happy to hear it.

If he tries to renegotiate NAFTA, (keeping in mind that the treaty is between Mex. and Canada) you can expect the Dow to plummet and unemployment to go up.
carlosfiance says:

December 1, 2016

“I’ve negotiated with him over the years and he is not a bluffer. So if he says he will do something in a negotiation, not– I’m not talking about a campaign speech, in an actual negotiation, if he says, ‘If you don’t do this, I’ll do that,’ you bet your booty he will do it,” Ross said.

Besides what stevie points out above so well, assuming Ross is right, the question becomes for whom will he be negotiating? Judging from his cabinet picks, I’d bet my booty it ain’t gonna be for working people.
bigbraxstone says:

December 1, 2016

Would not the Congress have pass a renegotiated NAFTA Agreement? Maybe Mexico and Canada will slap tariffs on our exports too. Drumpf and his minions seem to think the USA operates on a one-way street.

I’m curious what all the proles will think upon walking into Walmart to discover that Trump’s trade policies have jacked up the price on everything they shop for so much they may as well have visited Nordstrom for their shoes and clothing? What the hell do voters think Trump’s promised 35>45% import tariffs on Chinese goods will do to their wallet?

Exports to China: Vital to US economic growth
  Despite the slowdown in its economy, China continues to be an important contributor to US economic growth. In 2015, US goods exports to China totaled $113 billion, down from the previous two years, but still the third-largest US goods export market behind Canada and Mexico, our neighbors and NAFTA partners.
An important new development is the rapid growth in US services exports to China. In 2014, the most recent complete year of available data, US services exports to China totaled $42 billion, making China the United States’ fourth-largest services export market. From 2006 to 2014, US services exports to China increased more than 300 percent. Services exports to the rest of the world increased 91 percent.
Global trade is slowing, but exports of US goods and services to China continue to outpace exports to other major markets. On average, US goods exports to China grew by nearly 9 percent annually over the past 10 years, despite last year’s decline of nearly 6 percent. Of the United States’ top 10 export markets, only the United Kingdom and Germany had positive export growth in 2015, reflecting the slowdown in global trade.

https://www.uschina.org/reports/us-exports/national
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'd like someone to look into exactly why Trump thinks starting a trade war with China is such a good idea. Definitely not a subject I've seen explored to any great degree. WTF is up with that?