U.S. and Mexico Agree to Preliminary Nafta Deal
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — The United States and Mexico have reached agreement to revise key portions of the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and a preliminary deal could be announced on Monday, a crucial step toward revamping a trade pact that has appeared on the brink of collapse during the past year of negotiations.
Reaching an agreement on how to revise some of the most contentious portions of what President Trump has long called the worst trade pact in history would give Mr. Trump a significant win in a trade war he has started with countries around the globe, including Mexico, Canada, the European Union and China.
Still, a preliminary agreement between the United States and Mexico would fall far short of actually revising Nafta. The preliminary agreement still excludes Canada, which is also a party to Nafta but has been absent from talks held in Washington in recent weeks.
The agreement with Mexico centers on rules governing the automobile industry, resolving a big source of friction, but leaves aside other contentious issues that affect all three countries.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/politics/us-mexico-nafta-deal.html
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NAFTA 12:27 P.M.
By Benjamin Hart@realaxelfoley
After months of painstaking negotiations that often seemed on the verge of collapse, the United States and Mexico reached a bilateral deal on Monday that would rewrite key portions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the landmark 1994 pact that President Trump attacked relentlessly on the campaign trail and has continued to rail against during his presidency. The big question now is whether Canada, the third party to the original deal, will come onboard.
During an Oval Office briefing with reporters, Trump awkwardly spoke with Mexican president on speaker-phone, hailing the new agreement as a breakthrough. He also said that he would be “terminating” NAFTA, and that the name of the new deal would be the the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement. He then threatened Canada with new tariffs on cars if it didn’t come to a trade agreement with with the U.S., which he said could be bilateral.
Behind the scenes, though, the Trump administration is attempting to get Canada to sign off on a trilateral deal, and Trump’s words could be viewed as a threat for Canada to get onboard as quickly as possible.
With Canadian-U.S.relations at a low after Trump assailed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, the country has withdrawn itself from NAFTA talks in recent weeks.
More:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/u-s-mexico-reach-preliminary-deal-on-nafta.html
Day after day the "fun" just keeps coming. He tears things down without having a clue what "plan" he is going to use as a replacement. Oh, sure, he says he has a plan but so far NADA with anything he has tried. I'm really ticked right now because I had a great Medicare Advantage cost plan that the Federal Government just trashed. I have no clue yet what will replace it because they are "working on the replacement" and it won't be ready until October. I do know I will get less for more money. All this happened out of sight. Suddenly a letter from my insurance company arrives with the news. He had the audacity to call it Trump Medicare! 
