Donald Trump, Republican presidential nominee, vowed on Tuesday to renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement with Canada and Mexico if elected as president. The move, he says, will help protect American jobs.
Trump called the North American Free Trade Agreement an American job killer, and said he would be willing to toss the pact altogether if Mexico and Canada were unwilling to cooperate. The Republican nominee also attempted to link presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to the deal.
The speech was Trump’s most detailed yet on the subject of trade, and he vowed to pull the U.S. out of negotiations for a deal involving 12 Pacific Rim countries. Trumps says he would use executive power to resolve trade issues with China.
“I’m going to tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better deal for our workers,” Trump said. If Canada and Mexico fail to cooperate or agree to the renegotiated pact, Trumps says he would notify the two nations that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the deal.
Trump tied Clinton to the pact, which was signed in 1993 during his administration, calling the agreement one Bill Clinton’s “worst legacies.”
During Trump’s speech, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tweeted on Twitter: “Under Trump’s trade plans, we would see higher prices, fewer jobs and a weaker economy.”
