WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.

FILE PHOTO - A car hauler heading for Detroit, Michigan, drives on the lane to Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.

For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an “appropriate” provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators.

The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years.

Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers.

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was “part of its internal process” although a source familiar with the Canadian government’s thinking said the document was “not earth shattering.”

The source said officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada would meet in Washington on Tuesday to discuss logistics of the talks. No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August.

Mexico’s economy ministry said in a statement it would work “to achieve a constructive negotiation process that will allow trade and investment flows to increase and consolidates cooperation and economic integration to strengthen North American competitiveness.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Mexican government official said the list of priorities was “not as bad as I was expecting” and welcomed that the United States was not pushing to impose punitive tariffs, as Trump has threatened.

Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved through trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.

“The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits and that’s unfortunate,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “There’s not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That’s more of a macroeconomic issue.”

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA’s rules of origin to ensure that the pact’s benefits do not go to outside countries and to “incentivize” the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product’s components must originate from NAFTA countries.

AUTOMAKERS SUPPORT STANCE

Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include objectives on the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation.

A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: “Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA.”

The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an “unequivocal failure” and should be completely renegotiated although he stopped short of calling on Trump to abandon the agreement if there was no agreement.

“We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation,” the head of the 12.5-million-strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.

FILE PHOTO - Robert Lighthizer speaks after he was sworn as U.S. Trade Representative during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, U.S. on May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

“If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal,” Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $63 billion last year.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Monday it is seeking a provision to deter currency manipulation as part of its renegotiation of the North American Free trade agreement, a move that would set a precedent in a U.S. trade deal.

In a letter to lawmakers setting out negotiating objectives, USTR Robert Lighthizer said that the pact should, "through an appropriate mechanism, ensure that the NAFTA countries avoid manipulating exchange rates in order to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage."

Neither Canada or Mexico is currently on a U.S. Treasury a "watch list" for possible currency manipulation.</s>WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday launched the first salvo in the renegotiation of the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying its top priority for the talks was shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and Mexico.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he would seek to reduce the trade imbalance by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico under the three-nation pact.

For the first time in a U.S. trade deal, the administration also said it wants an "appropriate" provision to deter currency manipulation by trading partners. The move appeared aimed at future trade deals rather than specifically at Canada and Mexico, which are not considered currency manipulators.

The 17-page document asserted that no country should manipulate its currency exchange rate to gain an unfair competitive advantage, an often-cited complaint about China in past years.

Shortly before the release of the document, President Donald Trump lashed out against trade deals and unfair trade practices, saying he would take more legal and regulatory steps during the next six months to protect American manufacturers.

Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said the U.S. list was "part of its internal process" although a source familiar with Canadian government thinking said the document was "not earth shattering."

Trade experts have argued that shrinking the yawning U.S. trade deficit will not be achieved by revising trade deals but rather by boosting U.S. savings.

"The first bullet point shows their preoccupation with bilateral trade deficits, and that's unfortunate," said Chad Brown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "There's not much that trade policy and trade agreements can do to change those. That's more of a macroeconomic issue."

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

There was no mention of active disputes between the United States and Canada over softwood lumber and dairy products, but the document targeted a range of agricultural non-tariff barriers, including subsidies and unfair pricing structures, that are currently at the heart of those standoffs.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from NAFTA countries.

No date has been announced for the NAFTA talks, but they are expected in mid-August.

Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, a group representing U.S. automakers, welcomed the decision to include in the list of objectives the removal of regulatory barriers and the provision on currency manipulation.

A spokesman for Ford Motor Co said: “Foreign currency manipulation is the 21st century trade barrier, and we strongly support the inclusion of this top-tier issue in the U.S. negotiating objectives for NAFTA. We look forward to working with the administration to achieve this objective by including strong and enforceable currency prohibitions as part of NAFTA."

The document also outlined plans to upgrade standards for labor and the environment and govern digital trade. Canada and Mexico have already agreed to upgrade these areas as part of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Representative Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, said there was nothing in the document that would change the way Mexico treated its workers.

"Mexico has used their workers having no rights and suppressing labor costs as a key part of their industrial policy," he said, "There is nothing in the summary that assures in these vital aspects that a new NAFTA will be different than the old."

There was no formal reaction to the letter from Mexican government.

Earlier on Monday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," the head of the 12.5-million strong union umbrella group told a conference call with reporters.

"If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing US$1 trillion in 2015, but the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico exceeded US$63 billion last year.</s>US outlines tough negotiating strategy for revising the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada.

The United States on Monday outlined a tough negotiating strategy for revising the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and for the first time in a US trade deal said it would seek to deter currency manipulation by trading partners.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers ahead of talks expected next month, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the US trade deficit by improving access for US goods exported to Canada and Mexico, the two countries in NAFTA besides the US.

The document asserts that no country should manipulate currency exchange to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

The 18-page summary of negotiations for NAFTA offers a glimpse into what a Trump administration trade agenda could look like. Until now, US President Donald Trump's agenda has been shaped by campaign rhetoric and tweets.

READ MORE: NAFTA and the US - An explainer

While Canada and Mexico are not considered currency manipulators, the reference in the list of objectives could set a template for future trade deals such as a pending negotiation to modify a five-year-old US-South Korea free trade deal.

South Korea is on a US Treasury monitoring list for possible signs of currency manipulation.

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the US from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

It also plans to eliminate a range of non-tariff barriers to US agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico. These include subsidies and unfair pricing structures.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivise" the sourcing of US goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from within North America.

The demands that the Trump administration makes in the NAFTA talks could have far-reaching implications for US trade relations across the globe, with China keen to make inroads with Mexico and Canada if the US is seen to be retreating.

Lighthizer said the negotiations would begin no earlier than August 16, 2017.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Over a decade to 2010, however, the US lost nearly six million manufacturing jobs.

By last year, the United States ran a $64bn trade deficit with Mexico and a nearly $11bn gap with Canada.

Neither trade deficit is near its peak level. The trade deficit with Canada hit a high in 2008, while the trade gap with Mexico nearly reached $75bn in 2007.

"No longer are we going to allow other countries to break the rules, to steal our jobs and drain our wealth," Trump said at a 'Made in America' event at the White House earlier on Monday - that showcased products made in all 50 states, everything from a fire truck to a baseball bat - as he vowed to boost US manufacturing by cutting the trade deficit with Mexico

But the president has a conflicted relationship with global trade. His namesake clothing business depended on the work of low-wage workers living overseas, as does the fashion line of his daughter and White House aide, Ivanka Trump.

As of now, Ivanka Trump's firm continues to have its products made overseas.

Her lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement on Monday that the president's daughter "has resigned from the company, does not control its operations, and has been advised that she cannot ask the government to act in an issue involving the brand in any way, constraining her ability to intervene personally."

READ MORE: Mexicans left behind by NAFTA see opportunity in Trump

NAFTA has had a mixed impact in Mexico. It gave a major boost to Mexican farm exports, auto-manufacturing jobs, productivity and consumer prices.

But Mexico's economy grew at an average rate of just 1.3 percent a year between 1993 and 2013 during a period when Latin America was undergoing a major expansion, and poverty remains at similar levels to 1994, while mass unemployment has increased.

Some believe that, instead of fulfilling its promise of providing cheaper food to Mexicans, NAFTA deepened Mexico's dependency on food imports, leaving it unprotected from volatility in international food prices and exchange rates, reported Al Jazeera recently.</s>USTR to seek ‘appropriate mechanism’ in Nafta on currency manipulation

A US Dollar note is seen in this June 22, 2017 illustration photo. — Reuters picWASHINGTON, July 18 — The US Trade Representative’s office said yesterday it is seeking a provision to deter currency manipulation as part of its renegotiation of the North American Free trade agreement, a move that would set a precedent in a US trade deal.

In a letter to lawmakers setting out negotiating objectives, USTR Robert Lighthizer said that the pact should, “through an appropriate mechanism, ensure that the Nafta countries avoid manipulating exchange rates in order to prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or to gain an unfair competitive advantage.”

Neither Canada or Mexico is currently on a US Treasury a “watch list” for possible currency manipulation. — Reuters</s>Mexico's economy minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Tuesday he was concerned that the United States was still insisting on reducing trade deficits in the objectives it set out for the renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal on Monday.

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's economy minister on Tuesday expressed concern that the United States was insisting on reducing trade deficits in objectives it set out for the renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal, a document he nevertheless said contained "no surprises."

Speaking on Mexican television, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo also raised questions about U.S. hopes to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement's Chapter 19 dispute settlement mechanism that hinders the United States in pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Mexico and Canada.

Talking by telephone from Japan, Guajardo likened the U.S. desire to cut trade deficits with its NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada to a "mercantilist" vision of international trade.

"What I have said insistently in my conversations with my colleagues is that we're delighted to review trade balances provided that we focus on how to improve them by expanding commerce, not by reducing it," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a renegotiation of NAFTA, threatening to dump it if he cannot rework the accord to the benefit of the United States. He argues it has fueled a trade deficit with Mexico and cost thousands of U.S. jobs.

Guajardo said the document sent by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to lawmakers on Monday contained "no surprises", and he explicitly welcomed parts of it, including plans to enshrine anti-corruption provisions in NAFTA.

"What is positive is that (the United States) themselves paraphrased that they won't reintroduce quotas or tariffs during this process (of renegotiation)," he added.

Aside from his concern over Chapter 19, Guajardo also expressed doubts about the United States' intention to get rid of NAFTA's so-called "global safeguard exclusion" that curbs Washington's ability to impose measures on others.

"This will all have to be subject to the three sides being in agreement in the process," he said.

One Mexican official told Reuters on Monday he expected the Canadian government to fight to the "death" on Chapter 19, suggesting it could become a major bone of contention in negotiations due to begin next month.

Both Mexico and the United States face important elections in 2018 which could complicate the NAFTA revamp, and Guajardo has said it would be in the interests of both nations to wrap up the three-way talks by the end of this year.

However, there was no guarantee the process would be finished as quickly as they would like, Guajardo said.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday outlined a tough negotiating strategy for revising the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and for the first time in a U.S. trade deal said it would seek to deter currency manipulation by trading partners.

In a much-anticipated document sent to lawmakers ahead of talks expected next month, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the Trump administration aimed to reduce the U.S. trade deficit by improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico, the two countries in NAFTA besides the United States.

The document asserts that no country should manipulate currency exchange to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

The 17-page summary of negotiations for NAFTA offers a glimpse into what a Trump administration trade agenda could look like. Until now, President Donald Trump's agenda has been shaped by campaign rhetoric and tweets.

While Canada and Mexico are not considered currency manipulators, the reference in the list of objectives could set a template for future trade deals such as a pending negotiation to modify a five-year-old U.S.-South Korea free trade deal.

South Korea is on a U.S. Treasury monitoring list for possible signs of currency manipulation.

Among the priorities, Lighthizer said the administration would seek to eliminate a trade dispute mechanism that has largely prohibited the United States from pursuing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Canadian and Mexican firms.

It also plans to eliminate a range of non-tariff barriers to U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico. These include subsidies and unfair pricing structures.

USTR said it would seek to strengthen NAFTA's rules of origin to ensure that the pact's benefits do not go to outside countries and to "incentivize" the sourcing of U.S. goods. It offered no details on such incentives and did not specify how much of a product's components must originate from within North America.

The demands that the Trump administration makes in the NAFTA talks could have far-reaching implications for U.S. trade relations across the globe, with China keen to make inroads with Mexico and Canada if the United States is seen to be retreating.

Lighthizer said the negotiations would begin no earlier than Aug. 16, 2017.

U.S. labor union leaders and Democratic lawmakers weighed in on the issue early, reminding Trump they expect him to keep 2016 election campaign promises to protect American workers in NAFTA talks. They stopped short of demanding termination of the 1994 trade pact with Canada and Mexico.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of unions representing 12.5 million workers, said NAFTA had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at his word and make sure we get a renegotiation," he told a conference call with reporters. "If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," Trumka said.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Over a decade to 2010, however, the United States lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. The U.S. trade balance with Mexico also swung from a small surplus in 1994 to deficits that have exceeded $60 billion for most of the past decade.</s>Earlier today USTR Robert Lighthizer released President Trump’s NAFTA Objectives outline to congress and the American people. The NAFTA renegotiations are scheduled to begin in August.

The bilateral trade negotiations with the EU (European Union), S.E.A.N. (Southeast Asian Nations), China, U.K. and all other nations will follow -individually- after the NAFTA process is complete.

It cannot be overstated how critical this is. Please, please, understand. There are trillions of dollars at stake. All political opposition to President Donald Trump will increase in exponential severity as the dates of these renegotiated trade deals draws closer. There are trillions of dollars at stake. The entities outlined below will throw everything at the current administration in an effort to secure a better financial outcome for their interests.

Multinational Corporations, Wall Street interests and Multinational Financial stakeholders (mostly banks and foreign governments), have lobbied DC politicians for decades to create trade outcomes favorable to them. It is, at its core, the financial and policy cancer that has distributed America’s physical and financial wealth globally. Additionally, multinational corporate media are part of this entire process and are stakeholders in the outcomes.

Each of those entities now has a vested interest in opposition to President Trump. As an outcome almost every politician in Washington DC will be in opposition to the Trump administration.

Have no doubts, some will be more visible than others; but make no mistake – anyone who has held office for any substantive amount of time in the past 20+ years has been corrupted by the financial contributions to them personally. This process of purchased interest and influence is how politicians accumulate wealth.

These trade deals might seem like they are detached from core ideological political opposition; but the reverse is actually true.

There is a reason why no-one has ever exposed the administrative political system to the full cleansing of sunlight. Every attack, every promoted media attack, against President Trump and his team have these motives at the nucleus.

There are trillions at stake and each entity within the system has a vested interest. Yes, that includes both liberal and conservative media voices – especially Fox media. Yes, they too have their financial interests at risk.

It is with this understanding that every headline should be considered. It is through this prism that every attack angle should be contrast. The ability to understand these motives, and the ability to communicate this to your friends and family, is the most critical skillset needed in order to fundamentally restore America and every generation behind you.

Washington, D.C. – United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer today released a detailed and comprehensive summary of the negotiating objectives for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Through the renegotiation of NAFTA, the Trump Administration will seek a much better agreement that reduces the U.S. trade deficit and is fair for all Americans by improving market access in Canada and Mexico for U.S. manufacturing, agriculture, and services.

In addition to President Trump being the first American president to begin renegotiating a comprehensive free trade agreement like NAFTA, for the first time USTR has included deficit reduction as a specific objective for the NAFTA negotiations. Since NAFTA was implemented in 1994, the U.S. bilateral goods trade balance with Mexico has gone from a $1.3 billion surplus to a $64 billion deficit in 2016. Market access issues have arisen in Canada with respect to dairy, wine, grain and other products — barriers that the current agreement is unequipped to address.

The negotiating objectives also include adding a digital economy chapter and incorporating and strengthening labor and environment obligations that are currently in NAFTA side agreements. Additionally, among other objectives, the Administration will work to eliminate unfair subsidies, market-distorting practices by state owned enterprises, and burdensome restrictions on intellectual property.

The negotiating objectives aim to apply the highest standards covering the broadest possible range of goods and services to ensure truly free and fair trade that supports higher-paying jobs and economic growth in the United States.

“President Trump continues to fulfill his promise to renegotiate NAFTA to get a much better deal for all Americans,” said Ambassador Lighthizer. “Too many Americans have been hurt by closed factories, exported jobs, and broken political promises. Under President Trump’s leadership, USTR will negotiate a fair deal. America’s persistent trade imbalances, break down trade barriers, and give Americans new opportunities to grow their exports. President Trump is reclaiming American prosperity and making our country great again.”

At the direction of the President, on May 18, 2017, Ambassador Lighthizer sent a letter notifying Congress of the Administration’s intent to initiate NAFTA renegotiations.

Since then, USTR has been conducting extensive consultations with Congress, stakeholders, and the public at large. USTR sought public comments, received more than 12,000 responses, and heard directly from over 140 witnesses over three days of public hearings. During this process, the Administration received valuable advice that directly impacted the development of the negotiating objectives.

Further, these objectives reflect the negotiating standards established by Congress in the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA), which requires that USTR release objectives at least 30 days prior to formal negotiations. Negotiations will begin no earlier than August 16, 2017.

Through these negotiations, the Administration seeks an effectively implemented and enforced Agreement for more open, equitable, secure, and reciprocal market access. The Administration remains committed to conducting the negotiations with timely and substantive results for America’s workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. (link)

To understand the larger objectives of the global and financial elite it is important to understand the three-decade global financial construct they seek to protect. Global financial exploitation of national markets:

♦Multinational corporations purchase controlling interests in various national elements of developed industrial western nations.

 ♦The Multinational Corporations making the purchases are underwritten by massive global financial institutions, multinational banks.

 ♦The Multinational Banks and the Multinational Corporations then utilize lobbying interests to manipulate the internal political policy of the targeted nation state(s).

 ♦With control over the targeted national industry or interest, the multinationals then leverage export of the national asset (exfiltration) through trade agreements structured to the benefit of lesser developed nation states – where they have previously established a proactive financial footprint.

The ‘America First’ Trump-Trade Doctrine upsets the entire construct of this multinational export/control dynamic. Team Trump focuses exclusively on bilateral trade deals with specific policy only looking out for the national interests of the United States.

Under President Trump’s Trade positions exfiltration of U.S. national wealth is essentially stopped. This puts the multinational corporations, globalists who previously took a stake-hold in the U.S. economy with intention to export the wealth, in a position of holding interest of an asset they cannot exploit.

If you can see the ramifications, and can grasp the inherent anger, you can begin to understand the severity of the opposition to President Trump.

This is the battle for middle America that you voted for !

On the positive side – as each of these trade deals is renegotiated and finalized, the vested opposing interests will sequentially drop out of the fight. As a result of fewer parties participating in the opposition, the UniParty attacks against the administration will slowly fade.

Until then, we will have to fight through each wave of political attacks.</s>WASHINGTON — The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said the Trump Administration’s overall goals for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are beneficial to the U.S. beef industry because they encourage the continuation of terms that have benefitted the industry for decades – specifically duty-free access and science-based sanitary and phytosanitary standards. The Administration this afternoon sent their goals to Capitol Hill.

“As we have said before, it is difficult to improve upon duty-free, unlimited access to Canada and Mexico—and we are pleased that USTR’s objectives for NAFTA include maintaining existing reciprocal duty-free market access for agricultural goods,” NCBA President Craig Uden said. Uden said NCBA will continue to support the inclusion of strong sanitary and phytosanitary standards in NAFTA.

NCBA has been an outspoken supporter of NAFTA because the terms of NAFTA developed Canada and Mexico into two very important export markets for U.S. beef. NCBA has expressed concern that any changes to the terms of NAFTA that impact beef and cattle trade may jeopardize the industry’s current access to Canada and Mexico.

While there may be calls from other segments of agriculture and other industries to update or renegotiate the terms of NAFTA, NCBA strongly encourages the Trump Administration to focus its efforts on those specific areas and leave alone the terms of NAFTA that have greatly benefitted the U.S. beef and cattle industry.

NCBA will continue to advise the Trump Administration and Congress to not repeat the mistakes of the past by using NAFTA to resurrect failed government marketing programs, such as Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL).

“As we learned from history, MCOOL failed to deliver higher values for producers or a safer food supply,” Uden said. “It did, however, result in further consolidation in the U.S. beef industry and the potential for $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico. We must learn from the mistakes of the past, not repeat them.”</s>WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. labor union leaders and Democratic lawmakers on Monday reminded U.S. President Donald Trump they expect him to keep election campaign promises to protect American workers in NAFTA talks, but they stopped short of demanding termination of the 1994 trade pact with Canada and Mexico.

Their comments came hours before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was to outline the administration's priorities for the talks. Under U.S. "fast-track" rules, the administration must release the priorities 30 days before negotiations begin.

President Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of unions representing 12.5 million workers, said the North American Free Trade Agreement had been an "unequivocal failure" and should be completely renegotiated.

"We will do everything we can to make this a good agreement and to hold the president at this word and make sure we get a renegotiation," he told a conference call with reporters.

"If it comes out that it is not a good deal, no deal is better than a bad deal," said Trumka.

The document outlining White House priorities was expected on Monday afternoon, said House Democrat Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, a leading voice against trade legislation on Capitol Hill.

The Trump administration has so far offered few specifics, other than expressing its desire to modernize the pact to increase U.S. manufacturing jobs and cut the trade deficit.

Some provisions from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump abandoned, are likely to serve as a model for NAFTA revisions, especially on issues such as labor, environment, intellectual property rights and state-owned enterprise.

Democratic Senator Debbie Dingell from Michigan. which is home to large automakers like Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, said she offered to work with the administration if it was serious about the talks.

Dingell in the past has called for U.S. trade deals to contain explicit provisions to deter currency manipulation by trading partners.

NAFTA has quadrupled trade among the three countries, surpassing $1 trillion in 2015. Over a decade to 2010, however, the United States lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs. The U.S. trade balance with Mexico also swung from a small surplus in 1994 to deficits that have exceeded $60 billion for most of the past decade.

Bob Martinez, who heads the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said labor unions should be present at the NAFTA negotiating table.

"I am requesting such," said Martinez. "Any renegotiation that starts off with the current trade template found in TPP is unacceptable," he said.
Robert Lighthizer sends a document to U.S. lawmakers outlining the Trump Administration's priorities for renegotiating NAFTA, including lower trade deficits and efforts to deter currency manipulation.