US President Donald Trump has warned there is a chance of a "major, major conflict" with North Korea.

Speaking to Reuters during an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office, President Trump said he would "love to solve things diplomatically but it's very difficult."

Earlier this week, the Trump administration hosted the entire US Senate at the White House for a classified briefing on the situation.

They revealed the US is aiming to pressure Kim Jong-Un into dismantling his nuclear and ballistic missile programmes through tightened sanctions.

"There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea, absolutely," President Trump told Reuters overnight.

The perceived threat from North Korea has been held up as one of the biggest challenges facing the Trump administration - with some experts saying the country could have a nuclear missile capable of reaching the US sometime after 2020.

Mr Trump has also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping - who he met in Florida earlier this month - for his efforts in deterring North Korea from its nuclear programme.

"I believe he is trying very hard," he told Reuters.

"He certainly doesn't want to see turmoil and death; he doesn't want to see it.

"He is a good man, he is a very good man and I got to know him very well."</s>April 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 with a long list of promises for his first 100 days. His record has been mixed. Here are the main issues he has confronted and what he has achieved ahead of Saturday's 100th day.

A pledge to repeal and replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy, was among Trump's central 2016 election campaign promises. It is also one of the biggest failures of his first 100 days.

A bill in the House of Representatives was withdrawn in late March when Republicans could not muster enough votes for passage even though they control the chamber.

A reworked plan this week has drawn support from the House Freedom Caucus, the conservative bloc that helped sink the original bill. That improves the chances of a deal in the House though it is unclear if it can win enough support from moderate Republicans, and it would face tougher challenges in the Senate.

Trump repeatedly promised the biggest tax reform since the 1980s. This week he proposed legislation to slash the corporate tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, cut the top personal income tax rate to 35 percent, repeal the inheritance tax, and temporarily slash the rate on overseas profits repatriated to the United States. The plan, however, is vague and even senior Republican lawmakers described it as offering only "guideposts" for legislative changes.

Trump's foreign policy has been marked by major shifts.

Russia: Trump spoke admiringly of Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign and indicated he wanted a rapprochement with Moscow. But the administration has not been able to fend off a controversy that has led to a congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including possible links between Trump´s campaign and Moscow. Trump has cooled considerably toward Putin. Putin condemned Trump's decision in early April to launch cruise missile strikes on Syria in punishment for a chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government, and Trump said the relationship with Russia "may be at an all-time low."

North Korea: A growing nuclear and missile threat from North Korea is perhaps Trump's most serious security challenge. He has vowed to prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile, a capability experts say Pyongyang could have some time after 2020. Trump's administration aims to push North Korea into dismantling its nuclear and missile programs through tougher international sanctions and diplomatic pressure. He has pressed China, North Korea´s biggest trading partner, to do more to curb Pyongyang´s nuclear program.

NATO: Trump alarmed U.S. allies during the election campaign by calling NATO "obsolete." In mid-April he lavished praise on NATO and said it is not obsolete.

Syria: Trump had vowed to avoid entanglements in Middle East conflicts and, in his first days in office, said he did not want the United States dragged deeper into the Syrian conflict. But he responded to the chemical weapons attack, which killed dozens of people, by ordering strikes on a Syrian air base. That won praise from allies in Europe and from U.S. lawmakers.

Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigrants entering the United States and the deportation of illegal immigrants living in the country, especially those with criminal records. He also pledged to build a wall along the border and to get Mexico to pay for it.

The approach and strong rhetoric have had an effect with the number of migrants caught trying to enter the country illegally hitting a 17-year low in March. The number of children traveling with a guardian and apprehended at the southern U.S. border plunged by more than 90 percent in March from December.

Trump insists he will build the border wall, but in order to lift the threat of a government shutdown, he gave way on his demand this week that Congress include full funding for it in a spending bill.

Trump campaigned on a promise to bar the entry of Muslims into the United States, casting it as part of the fight against the Islamic State militant group. On Jan. 27, he ordered a temporary ban on the entry of nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Syria. He also indefinitely banned refugees from Syria and temporarily banned refugees from all other countries. A federal judge temporarily halted the ban, and a federal appeals court upheld that ruling. Trump issued a revised travel ban in early March, only to see it again blocked in federal court.

Similarly, a federal judge this week blocked his order to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities, which offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants.

This is one of Trump's clearest wins. His promise to select a like-minded successor to Justice Antonin Scalia, who died early last year, was kept with the nomination of Neil Gorsuch. The Senate confirmed Gorsuch despite Democratic opposition, restoring a conservative majority on the court.

Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal just days after his inauguration, keeping a campaign promise.

Trump had both threatened to withdraw from or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), blaming it for an exodus of U.S. jobs to Mexico. The threats of withdrawal had jolted financial markets at various times. On Thursday, Trump extended an olive branch, saying he would not terminate NAFTA after the leaders of Mexico and Canada asked him to work on a new trade deal.

Trump also ordered a review of the causes of U.S. trade deficits, such as dumping of products below cost; unfair subsidies; "misaligned" currencies; and "non-reciprocal" trade practices.

Trump had vowed to name China a currency manipulator, meaning the United States could then impose tariffs on Chinese goods. But in mid-April he changed course and said that China was not a currency manipulator.

Trump has acted aggressively on his promise to eliminate regulations that he said were hurting the U.S. economy. He issued a permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. He also rescinded Obama-era climate change regulations, including the Clean Power Plan; a ban on coal leasing on federal lands; and rules to curb methane emissions from oil and gas production.

As part of a push to open up more federal lands to drilling, mining and other development, Trump ordered a review to identify national monuments that can be rescinded or resized. Legal challenges are expected.

His administration has approved a dozen measures rolling back regulations passed in the final months of the Obama administration on the environment, energy, education and financial services.

Trump has pledged to keep U.S. companies from shipping jobs overseas. Before taking office, Trump used the muscle of his election victory to threaten companies about moving jobs abroad. He claimed victories with the Carrier unit of United Technologies Corp and with Ford Motor Co, though Carrier still cut hundreds of jobs in Indiana and Ford said it scrapped plans for a Mexican factory because of declining demand for small cars in North America. The jury is still out on how successful he can be in keeping jobs from going overseas.

Trump ordered a review of the H-1B visa program, which brings highly skilled foreign workers into the United States. He says he wants to modify or replace the current lottery system with a merit-based system for highly skilled workers.

This was one of Trump's rallying cries during the campaign, saying he would change Washington by cracking down on the influence of special interests and political elites. He criticized Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for her paid speeches to Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs but has named several former Goldman executives to his inner circle. He did ban appointees of any executive agency from lobbying for five years after leaving government employment and permanently banned future former appointees from activity on behalf of any government or political party abroad. (Reporting by Leslie Adler; Editing by Kieran Murray and Howard Goller)</s>President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Thursday the United States, Canada and Mexico can successfully renegotiate a trade accord he deems unfair to American interests but vowed to scrap the 23-year-old pact if a "fair deal for all" cannot be reached.

Trump, in a meeting with Argentine president Mauricio Macri, said Thursday he had planned to terminate NAFTA, but decided to hold off after speaking to the leaders of Mexico and Canada to see if deal can be made.

"Rather than terminating NAFTA, which would be a pretty big shock to the system, we will renegotiate," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If I'm unable to make a fair deal for the United States ... I will terminate NAFTA."

Trump's comments came a day after the White House decided against taking immediate steps to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact Trump has long condemned.

Instead of pursuing a termination order considered by some advisers, the White House said Trump told Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by telephone that the United States would seek to quickly begin renegotiating the pact.

Earlier on Thursday, Trump wrote on Twitter he had received calls from Pena Nieto and Trudeau.

"Relationships are good-deal very possible!" Trump wrote.

In Mexico City, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Wednesday's call, initiated by Pena Nieto and lasting about 20 minutes, focused exclusively on the looming talks over NAFTA's "renegotiation and modernization." Videgaray said Trump wanted to see the talks accelerated.

"I believe that all the conditions to reach a good negotiation exist, that will suit Mexico ... and that is also good for the region, for both Canada and the United States," Videgaray told local broadcaster Televisa, adding that relations between the United States and Mexico have experienced "enormous progress" during Trump's presidency.

Trump has criticized multinational trade agreements as unfair to the United States and made pulling out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, one of his first major acts after becoming president in January.

In Ottawa, a Canadian source familiar with the matter said Trudeau urged Trump not to withdraw from NAFTA, saying such action would be counterproductive.

Trump repeatedly has threatened to pull out of NAFTA, which erased most tariffs between the three neighbors, if he cannot renegotiate better terms for the United States, which went from running a small goods trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63-billion deficit in 2016.

Mexico, Canada and the United States form one of the world's biggest trading blocs, and trade disruptions among them could cause havoc in the automotive, agricultural, energy and other sectors.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC on Thursday that numerous "conceptual flaws" in the treaty needed to be addressed. Ross said Chinese goods dumped in Mexico are making their way into the United States.

"The rules of origin in NAFTA need some tightening," Ross said. "Rules of origin are what let material outside of NAFTA to come in and benefit from all the taxes and tariff reductions within NAFTA."

"It was a silly idea to let a lot of outside stuff in. The whole idea of a trade deal is to build a fence around participants inside and give them an advantage over the outside," Ross added. "So there's a conceptual flaw in that, one of many conceptual flaws in NAFTA."

The Mexican and Canadian currencies maintained their rebound early on Thursday after Trump's latest comments. The U.S. dollar dropped 0.3 percent against its Canadian counterpart and about 0.5 percent against the peso.

Trump's scorn toward international trade deals, part of his nationalist political message, appeals to Americans who feel such pacts have cost Americans jobs, and he has said businesses that choose to move plants outside the country would pay a price.

On Wednesday, the White House said Trump had spoken with Mexican and Canadian counterparts and agreed not to immediately move to terminate NAFTA. The announcement came hours after White House officials disclosed that Trump and his advisers had been considering an executive order to withdraw the United States from NAFTA, but there was a split among his top advisers over whether to take the step.

"The leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries," the White House said in a statement.

Trump long has accused Mexico of luring away American factories and jobs with cheap labor and other advantages enabled by NAFTA. On Tuesday, Trump said he did not fear a trade war with Canada even as he complained about Canadian trade practices.

His administration on Monday moved to impose tariffs on imported Canadian lumber that mostly feeds U.S. homebuilding, noting trade authorities have consistently sided with Ottawa in the long-standing dispute.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday that he was “psyched” to terminate the NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico, but changed his mind after their leaders asked for it to be renegotiated instead.

Trump said in an interview with Reuters that he will not hesitate to change course again and pull the plug on the North American Free Trade Agreement if the negotiations become “unserious.”

His comments came at the end of a long 24 hours during which Ottawa and Mexico City were whipsawed over the Trump administration’s intentions over the 23-year-old trade pact.

“You know I was really ready and psyched to terminate NAFTA,” Trump said.

He decided that it would be better to terminate the trade deal after hearing about Wisconsin farmers’ struggles with new Canadian dairy rules that were shutting out their milk protein exports.

“You saw that, you wrote about it,” Trump said. “And I said I’ve had it. I’ve had it.”

But after administration officials said a withdrawal order was being prepared, Trump said he received phone calls from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking to renegotiate the pact.

“I’m not looking to hurt Canada and I’m not looking to hurt Mexico. They’re two countries I really like,” Trump said. “So they asked to renegotiate, and I said yes.”

News of the possible U.S. pullout from NAFTA rattled financial markets on Wednesday. Relative calm returned on Thursday after Trump’s comments, and the Mexican peso strengthened 0.86 percent against the U.S. dollar, while the Canadian dollar was flat versus the greenback.

Mexico, Canada and the United States form one of the world’s biggest trading blocs, and trade disruptions among them could adversely affect farm, automotive, energy and other sectors in all three countries. NAFTA removed most trade and tariff barriers between the neighbors, but Trump and other critics have blamed it for deep U.S. job cuts.

Trump campaigned for president last year on a pledge to pull out of NAFTA if he could not renegotiate better terms. The United States went from running a small goods trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63-billion deficit in 2016.

Asked by Reuters what would make NAFTA a fair deal, Trump said: “Open markets. Open borders for trade” and “Fairness, no government subsidies so that it makes it impossible for our people to compete.”

He added that if the NAFTA negotiations “become unserious, I will terminate.”

As Trump spoke, a new trade irritant between the United States and Canada emerged, as Boeing Co asked the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate alleged price dumping and unfair Canadian government subsidies for Bombardier Inc’s new Canadian-made CSeries jetliners.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) walks down the West Wing colonnade with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

‘GET TO WORK’

Trudeau told a news conference in Saskatchewan he had urged Trump not to withdraw from the trade pact and warned that doing so “would cause a lot of short- and medium-term pain.”

“That’s not something that either one of us would want, so we agreed that we could sit down and get to work on looking at ways to improve NAFTA,” Trudeau said.

Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States. On Tuesday, Trump said he did not fear a trade war with Canada, a day after his administration moved to impose tariffs on Canadian lumber.

In Mexico City, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Pena Nieto had called Trump on Wednesday and spoken with him for about 20 minutes in a conversation focused exclusively on the looming talks over NAFTA’s “renegotiation and modernization.”

Trump has accused Mexico of luring away American factories and jobs with cheap labor and other advantages enabled by NAFTA. During the presidential campaign he accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals into the United States, and as president plans a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

One of Trump’s first major acts after becoming president in January was to pull out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiated by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

Several agriculture lobby groups in Washington were told U.S Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, confirmed by the Senate on Monday, met with Trump on Wednesday evening to dissuade him from withdrawing from NAFTA.

Slideshow (11 Images)

American Soybean Association President Ron Moore said, “When you’re talking about $3 billion in soybean exports a year, any threats to withdraw from agreements and walk away from markets makes farmers extremely nervous.”

Formal NAFTA talks likely will not get started until August. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office must first send Congress a notice that starts a 90-day consultation period preceding any negotiations.

A USTR spokeswoman said the notice would not be sent until the Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee for trade representative, Robert Lighthizer.</s>President Donald Trump was set to announce Saturday, on the 100th day of his presidency, that he was withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement - the sort of disruptive proclamation that would upend both global and domestic politics and signal to his base that he was keeping his campaign promise to terminate what he once called "a total disaster" and "one of the worst deals ever."

"I was all set to terminate," Trump said in an Oval Office interview Thursday night. "I looked forward to terminating. I was going to do it."

There was just one problem: Trump's team - like on so many issues - was deeply divided.

As news of the president's plan reached Ottawa and Mexico City in the middle of the week and rattled the markets and Congress, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and others huddled in meetings with Trump, urging him not to sign a document triggering a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA.

Perdue even brought along a prop to the Oval Office: A map of the United States that illustrated the areas that would be hardest hit, particularly from agriculture and manufacturing losses, and highlighting that many of those states and counties were "Trump country" communities that had voted for the president in November.

"It shows that I do have a very big farmer base, which is good," Trump recalled. "They like Trump, but I like them, and I'm going to help them."

By Wednesday night, Trump - who spent nearly two years as a candidate railing against the trade agreement - had backed down, saying that conversations with advisers and phone calls with the leaders of Canada and Mexico had persuaded him to reconsider.

Recalling his late Wednesday conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Trump said, "He said to me, 'I would really appreciate if we could negotiate instead of you terminating, because terminating sets a lot of things in motion that could be pretty devastating for a lot of people.' "

Trump's declaration to withdraw from NAFTA, followed by his abrupt turnabout, was the latest in a series of abrupt policy shifts and outright reversals in the frenzied lead-up to his 100th day in office, reflecting a president desperate to notch tangible victories and to offer the impression of forward momentum. It was also another example of the inherent tension between the fiery populist, who ran on a promise to upend Washington, and the pragmatic businessman, who is eager to score wins and is easily influenced by a cadre of chief executive friends and top advisers, many with Wall Street pedigrees.

Trump announced that he was not labeling China a currency manipulator, after months of promising to do so on Day One of his presidency. And he declared NATO "no longer obsolete," after months of saying it was.

He threatened to shut down the government over the border wall, only to retreat on funding for an actual brick-and-mortar structure. And he tasked his team with drafting a complex overhaul of the nation's tax code only to suddenly announce, surprising even his own aides and advisers, that he expected a proposal to be rolled out within days.

In some ways, as Trump nears the 100-day mark of his presidency, he is arguably beginning to find his footing, concentrating on core issues that have always animated him (trade) and others that captivate his business side (taxes). By refocusing on questions of trade and the economy, Trump has returned to more familiar and comfortable territory - the nationalistic populism that has defined him since the 1980s.

"The president has put himself in a perfect position on NAFTA because folks know he's inclined [to be] negative on NAFTA, yet he's open to negotiating," said Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. "It's a good spot to be. The leverage is all with the president."

Unlike his first failed attempt at passing a Republican replacement for President Barack Obama's health-care law, Trump and his team are directing as much activity as possible from within the West Wing, relying on executive orders rather than the more unwieldy but durable process of legislation.

But the approach has worried and alienated many of his closest allies, on Capitol Hill, on K Street and abroad. And it has showcased a president who often seems more interested in short-term accomplishments - and positive cable news headlines - than longer-term policy goals guided by ideology, and who can be swayed by unfolding events or compelling arguments from whomever he talks to last.

"I think they're just going to act whenever they can on executive action," said Chris Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax, a conservative media company, and a longtime friend of Trump's. "The problem is it's very temporary, but he wants to get things done, and trade has always been one of his big issues."

Trump, Ruddy added, "is a business guy. He thinks that America gets a bad part of these deals, and he wants to renegotiate them."

With Saturday's 100-day marker fast approaching, and eager for a win, the president turned his attention to taxes.

Trump had privately groused that he wished he had tackled taxes before trying to push through health care, a view magnified by some outside friends and confidants. Even something more modest than the full overhaul for which he hoped, such as cutting corporate tax rates, they said, would provide the president and his base with an energizing triumph.

But it was an April 19 op-ed in the New York Times, titled "Why Are Republicans Making Tax Reform So Hard?" and penned by Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, that helped propel Trump to act.

The op-ed, written by conservatives who have strong influence within the White House, said an overhaul of the tax code would give Trump a much-needed "legislative victory" and complained that the White House "seems to be all over the map on the subject." It called on the administration to move quickly on a tax proposal, not to overthink it and to push forward "with some degree of urgency."

Trump saw the op-ed right as he was becoming restless with the success of his economic agenda.

The White House rushed to engage the op-ed's authors and reassure the economic conservatives who have privately complained about Trump's nationalistic streak on trade and the lack of action of taxes.</s>The winding down of President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, a milestone he will reach on Saturday, has provided an occasion for observers to dissect how his presidency compares to past administrations so far. Though the history of his own administration is just beginning to be written , the President — though he has said that he does not read a lot of history books — has frequently turned to just that type of historical comparison, too.

Here's a sampling from the history of the United States as described by President Trump:

Thomas Jefferson: Trump has turned to the Founding Father to support arguments in favor of rolling back limits on political activity by religious groups and to make a point about the media.

Read more: What were Thomas Jefferson's spiritual beliefs?

Read more: What Thomas Jefferson said about the importance of a free press

Andrew Jackson: One of the President's favorite historical figures, Jackson has been referenced frequently — and Trump chose that predecessor's portrait for the Oval Office.



Henry Clay: The President has used Clay as an example of the long history of politicians trying to protect American industry. "Clay was a fierce advocate for American manufacturing. He wanted it badly, he said, very strongly, free trade," Trump noted. "He knew all the way back, early 1800s, Clay said that trade must be fair, equal, and reciprocal. Boom." ( Mar. 20, 2017 )

Harriet Tubman: "I think Harriet Tubman is fantastic," Trump said of the Underground Railroad hero, but dismissed replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill as "pure political correctness." ( April 21, 2016 ) He later also called Tubman "very, very courageous." ( Mar. 29, 2017 )

Read more: The case for Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill

Abraham Lincoln: Trump has evoked Lincoln in discussions of everything from the history of his party to the importance of overcoming divisions.

Frederick Douglass: "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice," the President said — prompting pundits to wonder whether Trump thought Douglass, who died in 1895, was still alive. ( Feb. 1, 2017 )

Susan B. Anthony: Speaking at a Women's History Month event, the President joked that he was "shocked" that the audience had heard of Anthony, and praised her for dreaming "of a much more equal and fair future" where women had the right to vote and serve in government. "And that’s what’s happening more and more," he said. "Tough competition out there, I want to tell you." ( Mar. 29, 2017 )

World War II: "We won World War II in 3½ years; we ought to be able to modernize our air traffic control system." ( Feb. 9, 2017 )

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

Cold War: Trump has evoked the Cold War as a time of success in American foreign policy.

The Vietnam War: Trump has called the Vietnam War an "ugly chapter in our history" because "our troops became the victims of harassment and political agendas" — a situation he has likened to the circumstances faced by domestic law-enforcement today. ( July 11, 2016 )

Read more: Interviews with four key Vietnam-era anti-war activists

NATO: The President said that NATO was an "obsolete" relic of a different time in history in late March. "NATO was done at a time you had the Soviet Union, which was obviously larger, much larger than Russia is today. I'm not saying Russia's not a threat. But we have other threats. We have the threat of terrorism and NATO doesn’t discuss terrorism, NATO's not meant for terrorism. NATO doesn’t have the right countries in it for terrorism," he said. ( Mar. 27, 2016 ) "It's no longer obsolete," he said in an April 12 press conference with NATO's Secretary General.

Read more: The history behind Donald Trump's meeting with a NATO leader

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Trump praised Eisenhower as a"good president, great president" while suggesting that his stance on immigration was worth emulating: "[Eisenhower] moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border. They came back. Moved them again beyond the border, they came back. Didn’t like it. Moved them way south. They never came back." ( Nov. 10, 2015 )

Read more: What Donald Trump got right and wrong about the history of deportation

Civil Rights: "Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever," the President said in late 2016 — drawing criticism from those who pointed out that slavery was not ended in the United States until the Civil War, and that segregation and disenfranchisement persisted for a century more. ( Sep. 22, 2016 )

Gerald Ford: The 38th President "served this country with honor" and was also "a great athlete," Trump pointed out. ( Mar. 2, 2017 )

Jimmy Carter: In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump noted that Carter became President because, even though he was "poorly qualified" he had the "nerve, the guts, the balls, to ask for something extraordinary." But later, during President Obama's second term in office, Trump quipped on Twitter that Carter "is so happy that he is no longer considered the worst President in the history of the United States!" ( Sep. 7, 2013 )

Ronald Reagan: Another President mentioned in The Art of the Deal, Reagan was assessed by Trump as "so smooth and so effective a performer that he completely won over the American people" in order to get elected. "Only now, nearly seven years later, are people beginning to question whether there's anything beneath that smile," Trump wrote in 1987.

Iraq War: Trump called the war "the worst decision ever made in the history of our country" ( Feb. 19, 2016 ) but has also suggested that " we should have kept the oil in Iraq" because "in the old days, when we won a war, to the victor belonged the spoils." ( Aug. 15, 2016 )

NAFTA: " NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton and I believe it's the single worst trade document ever signed in the history of our country and probably in the history of our world." ( Aug. 12, 2016 )

Read more: A brief history of NAFTA

Iran Deal: Trump said the Iran deal "will go down in history as one of the worst deals ever negotiated." ( July 21, 2016 )</s>President Donald Trump announced a series of executive actions Monday focusing on trade, making good on a core campaign promise.

The actions, signed Monday at the White House, institutes a federal employee hiring freeze, formally withdraws the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and reinstates a GOP-backed policy regarding foreign aid and abortion funding.

Trump noted that his long-promised action to shrink the federal government would not apply to the American military.

Trump's action to nix the TPP trade deal also fulfilled one of his most core campaign promises. The trade agreement, backed by the Obama administration, earned criticism from both Trump and his Democratic foe, Hillary Clinton, during their protracted general election fight. But pro-business groups and many of Trump's Republican allies have voiced support for the deal.

Trump also acted Monday to reinstate the so-named "Mexico City policy" first instituted by Ronald Reagan. That directive essentially barred recipients of U.S. foreign aid from promoting abortion as a method of family planning. In the early days of his presidency, Bill Clinton reversed the Reagan-backed policy; President George W. Bush reinstated it shortly after his election; and President Barack Obama revoked it - each in their first few days as president.

Trump's team has also indicated that he will take executive action soon to jumpstart his promised renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

NAFTA -a trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico that was first enacted in 1994 — was one of Trump's top targets during his presidential campaign.

Earlier on Monday, Trump suggested that companies that move outside of the United States should expect to face "a substantial border tax."

"We want to start making our products again," he said. "We don't want to bring them in, we want to make them here and that doesn't mean we don't trade, because we do trade, but we want to make our products here."

On Friday, Trump announced his first executive order, which pledged to "minimize the economic burden" of Obamacare pending the law's eventual repeal.

This is a developing story. Please refresh for details.</s>The Trump administration has no inherent objection to the India-US free trade agreement though there have been no serious discussions with New Delhi over the issue, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said.

The US does not have a free trade agreement (FTA) with India and as a result India-US trade relationship is currently governed under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ross told reporters at a White House news conference yesterday.

However, he said there have been no serious discussion on this with India.

“I don’t believe that there have been any serious discussions with India of late on the topic of a free trade agreement. But there’s no inherent negative attitude on our part on that,” Ross said when asked if he favoured a free trade agreement with India.

Currently, the US has free trade agreements with 20 countries – Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, South Korea, Mexico, Moroccan, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru and Singapore.

While there is no such move in this regard right now, the previous US administrations have been open to the idea of a India-US FTA.

“I think that (FTA) is something that in the future we see as a very important and positive development. There are certainly concerns between the US and India in terms of some of the protective tariffs and trade barriers that we think that India needs to address,” the then Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal had told Senator John McCain during a Congressional hearing in September of 2013.

The US-India bilateral trade relationship is far away from FTA. In the previous Obama administration, the two countries talked about a bilateral investment treaty.

In a recent document, the US-India Business Council had encouraged the US and India to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) that promotes the free flow of economic resources – capital, people, and technology.

“This is a critical step to unleash the full potential of industry in both countries. The process of treaty negotiation would provide a platform to resolve deadlocks and challenges on issues such as tantalisation, the high-skilled work visa program, intellectual property protection and product conformity by aggregating the benefits and mitigating costs,” it had said.

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App now</s>Trade tensions spiked between Washington and Ottawa as President Donald Trump accused Canada of being “very rough” on its southern neighbor and threatened to retaliate against new restrictions on US dairy products.

Trump also touted his administration’s surprise decision late Monday to rekindle an old trade conflict with America’s second-largest trading partner by slapping new tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber.

“People don’t realize, Canada has been very rough on the United States. Everyone thinks of Canada of being nice but they’ve outsmarted our politicians for many years,” Trump told a group of farmers at the White House.

He said Canada was hurting American dairy farmers near the border, from Wisconsin to New York, by blocking dairy exports “and we’re not going to put up with it.”

Trump’s aggressive comments echoed a tweet he sent earlier in the day, just hours after the Commerce Department announced it was imposing tariffs of up to 24 percent on Canadian softwood lumber, which it says is improperly subsidized.

Addressing reporters at the White House yesterday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the twin disputes underline the problems with the North American Free Trade Agreement linking the United States with Canada and Mexico, which Trump has vowed to renegotiate.

“If NAFTA were functioning properly, you wouldn’t be having these kinds of very prickly and unfortunate events back to back,” Ross said. “They are generally a good neighbor. That doesn’t mean they don’t have to play by the rules.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the unexpected burst of tough rhetoric by vowing his government would be “very firm in defending Canada’s interests.”

But Trudeau also said his officials “will work constructively together” with the United States to find a solution.

Canada’s dairy sector is protected by tariffs on imports and controls on domestic production as a way to support prices for the country’s farmers.

The latest row was triggered when Canada extended those policies to apply to ultrafiltered milk, a product used in cheese production and at the center of a thriving US export business.

The US Dairy Export Council said the extension “blatantly blocks American dairy exports,” urging Trump to “take immediate action” to protect the business of dozens of US farmers.

While no other immediate retaliation was planned against Ottawa, Ross said Washington was looking into measures to “correct” what it says is an effective block on a new class of US dairy exports.

“The problem with dairy isn’t that they’re dumping dairy products in the US. The problem is worse. They are prohibiting US dairy producers from selling their products in Canada,” Ross said.

The softwood lumber dispute between Washington and Ottawa has also seen many twists and turns for nearly 35 years, with US producers accusing their Canadian counterparts of exporting lumber at subsidized prices, harming American businesses.

In the long-standing dispute, the Commerce Department announced late Monday that after talks with Ottawa failed to yield an agreement, it would impose duties of between three and 24 percent on softwood lumber, used for flooring, siding and other building products.

Ross justified the duties by saying Canadian firms “charge a subsidized low price when the products hit the US border.”

The US Commerce Department said it will conduct a thorough investigation and confirm its position on the lumber tariffs by September 27. If confirmed, the tariffs would then have to be approved by the US International Trade Commission.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now</s>WASHINGTON — The Latest on the North American Free Trade Agreement (all times EDT):

President Donald Trump has told the leaders of Mexico and Canada that he will not pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The White House made the surprise announcement in a read-out of calls Wednesday between the world leaders.

The White House says the president “agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time.”

Instead, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation” of the trade deal to “the benefit of all three countries.”

He says he believes “that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.”

President Donald Trump is considering signing a draft executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.

But it’s just one of a number of options being discussed.

Senior White House officials have been discussing steps that can be taken to start the process of renegotiating or withdrawing from NAFTA before the end of Trump’s first 100 days in office, according to a person familiar with the president’s thinking.

Trump railed against the decades-old trade deal during his campaign, describing it as a “disaster.”

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.

The official says a number of options remain on the table.
U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, softening earlier claims that he would terminate the trade bloc.