U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter over the weekend to warn Canada that he will impose tariffs on the auto industry if current negotiations aimed at revising the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fail.
Tweeting about the current state of NAFTA talks, U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations with Mexico are "coming along nicely," while telling Canada it will have to wait to re-enter the talks to modernize the three-nation trade pact – reinforcing his stated preference for bilateral negotiations.
"Deal with Mexico is coming along nicely. Autoworkers and farmers must be taken care of or there will be no deal," President Trump tweeted, adding that incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador "has been an absolute gentleman."
President Trump had harsher words for Canada though, stating that "Canada must wait. Their Tariffs and Trade Barriers are far too high. Will tax cars if we can’t make a deal!"
The tweets highlight the goodwill the U.S. and Mexico have enjoyed since Mexican President Obrador was elected in July. President Obrador, Mexico’s first left-wing leader in recent times, won’t take office until December 1, and he’s believed to be keen for the transitional government to clinch a deal with the U.S. before then so his party can maintain some distance from a revamped agreement.
At the same time, relations with Canada have been tense since June’s Group of Seven meeting held in Quebec, when President Trump renounced support for the summit’s communique and took parting shots at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for promising to stand up to U.S. tariffs.
Larry Kudlow, the White House Economic Adviser, said Trump doesn’t want to withdraw from NAFTA but "prefers bilateral negotiations" and wants to try a different approach. "Oftentimes, when you have to compromise with a whole bunch of countries, you get the worst of the deals," Kudlow has said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo have been meeting in Washington, D.C. for the last two weeks, with talks focused on rules for how much North American content should be included in cars, a pivotal issue in the trade discussions.
