June 29, 2016, 04:10 pm
In Canada, Obama rebukes Trump on trade



President Obama on Wednesday rebuked Donald Trump for calling for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Speaking at a summit with the two other nations' leaders, during which all three pledged greater collaboration on trade, Obama acknowledged that people struggling to make a living “have a legitimate gripe about globalization.”“The question is, what do you do about it?” Obama said in Ottawa, Canada. “And the prescription of withdrawing from trade deals and focusing solely on your local market, that is the wrong medicine.

“We can’t disengage. We’ve got to engage more.”

Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, this week said he would withdraw the United States from the trade pact if Canada and Mexico refuse to retool the deal to make it more favorable for American workers.

But Obama said if the U.S. pulls out, it would deal a blow to the economy by making goods more expensive and lead to the loss of manufacturing jobs by driving up the cost of exports.

“The amount of disruption involved would be enormous,” Obama said.

The American, Mexican and Canadian heads of state vowed Wednesday to enhance their trading ties amid protectionist talk in the U.S. presidential election.

Obama and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto urged support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the final "Three Amigos" summit. But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came up short of endorsing the 12-nation TPP while stressing the importance of the trading relationship between the three nations.

“The politics of trade are always difficult in every country,” Obama said.

“But we all believe that in an integrated global economy, the goal is not for us to try to shut ourselves off from the world, but rather to raise standards for workers, for the environment,” he said.

“That's what TPP does. It's the right thing to do and we are going to keep working for it."

Peña Nieto said that Mexico’s Senate is in the process of approving the TPP.

“Isolationism is not the answer,” Peña Nieto said. “We have decided to be closer, to work as a team and to complement each one and make progress together as the most competitive region in the world.”

Trudeau said that despite the suggestions of ending trading relationships, the “strategy is to highlight how much trade and positive agreements among our nations is good not only for the economy of our world and the economy of our countries, it’s also good for our citizens.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...trump-on-nafta