Thread: President Trump Announces United States-Mexico Trade Agreement - NAFTA No More

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

"Details aren't yet available, but an expected major focus was the automobile industry. An agreement reportedly would have to include greater use of U.S.-produced steel and workers paid at least $16 an hour and somewhere between 70% and 75% U.S. steel content versus the current 62.5%.

The presumption is that such an arrangement would benefit, among others, auto and steel workers in the U.S. because, all things being equal on the labor front, it would become easier and cheaper to send raw materials to U.S. factories that already paid higher wages. As the Wall Street Journal reported:"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikshe.../#39f21f553389

I really like that second paragraph.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

" . . . . the automobile industry . . . workers paid at least $16 an hour . . . "

That's a nice raise, for the Mexican workers.

I was thinking that same exact thing. And I was also thinking, it might get too expensive for these traitor auto makers to export our jobs, and be forced to bring them back home. I guess Trump isn't such a bad deal maker. That was pretty clever. Now let's see what else was agreed upon.

Originally Posted by MW

Unfortunately this may be one of those deals where we find out exactly what's in it after it signed and delivered.

Yeah, I'm not bringing out any zippo lighters, pop corn, champagne, or fireworks just yet---once burned and all that.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

" . . . . the automobile industry . . . workers paid at least $16 an hour . . . "

That's a nice raise, for the Mexican workers.

An incentive for Mexicans to stay in Mexico. Maybe it will result in the lower of attempts to illegally cross our border.

"Details aren't yet available, but an expected major focus was the automobile industry. An agreement reportedly would have to include greater use of U.S.-produced steel and workers paid at least $16 an hour and somewhere between 70% and 75% U.S. steel content versus the current 62.5%.

"The U.S. wage proposal “is likely to price Mexico out of the market -- by all accounts, Mexican negotiators are well aware of that,” Phil Levy, a former senior trade economist in George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers who is now a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg television on Tuesday. “And that doesn’t actually help any of the North American producers, so it doesn’t seem like a terribly viable strategy."

The press office of Mexico’s Economy Ministry and the press office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer declined to comment."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-09/mexico-is-said-to-offer-nafta-cars-compromise-on-content-wages

By Eric Martin
August 27, 2018, 7:06 PM PDT

Trump’s previous demand on border wall hasn’t been discussed

Trade pact with U.S. removes one of most controversial topics

Mexico’s newly-announced trade agreement with the U.S. removes one of the most controversial topics in the relationship and in no way serves as a payment for a border wall, according to the Latin American nation’s top diplomat.

President Donald Trump’s promise to make Mexico pay billions of dollars for a wall to stop illegal immigration, a central point of his presidential campaign, hasn’t been a part of recent conversations between the nations as they worked to update the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said in an interview.

Trump launched his bid for the presidency three years ago by labeling some Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. Mexico has repeatedly said paying for the wall is a non-starter, and the issue led President Enrique Pena Nieto to cancel trips to Washington twice in as many years, most recently in February. Videgaray said that the wall payment issue isn’t one that the U.S. has brought to the table with Mexico recently.

"It was indeed a point of tension, of public and notorious differences between Mexico and the United States, but I think that the decision we made not to allow a difference to define the rest of the relationship, that we could see beyond that difference, today is giving very obvious results," Videgaray said in an interview in Washington.

Significant Breakthroughs
Trump on Monday said he’s pursuing a new trade accord with Mexico to replace Nafta and called on Canada to join the deal soon or risk being left out. The deal is the biggest development in talks that began a year ago, punctuated by Trump’s repeated threats to quit Nafta altogether. Significant breakthroughs came during the past several days of bilateral talks on automobiles and energy. The three countries trade more than $1 trillion annually, much of it under the pact.

Talks to update Nafta began a year ago, but in recent weeks have been held between just the U.S. and Mexico. The U.S. president says the deal has led to hundreds of thousands of lost American jobs, and he promised to either change it to be more favorable to the U.S., or withdraw.

Trump’s relationship with Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has started on a positive note. The two have exchanged complimentary letters, and Lopez Obrador said he plans to invite Trump to his inauguration. Jesus Seade, a World Trade Organization veteran who was Lope Obrador’s representative to Nafta talks, joined Videgaray and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo from the outgoing government in announcing the deal with the U.S. on Monday.

The Trump and Pena Nieto administrations had been working for five weeks to resolve specific bilateral issues so Canada can rejoin the talks. The U.S. and Mexico are pushing for an agreement this month that would give the countries time to sign the pact before Lopez Obrador takes office in December.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...or-border-wall

'We will NEVER pay for a wall,' Mexico tells Trump via Twitter