Trump vows to overhaul trade deal with Mexico, Canada

President Trump told top congressional lawmakers on Thursday that he wants to move quickly to overhaul a trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. 

Trump said he has “serious concerns” about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and told Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees he wants to “kick start” the reworking of the 1990s-era deal. 

{mosads}”NAFTA has been a catastrophe for our country; it’s been a catastrophe for our workers and our jobs and our companies. They’re leaving our country,” Trump told the lawmakers at the White House.

“I want to change it, and maybe we do it. Maybe we do a new NAFTA and we put an extra ‘F’ in the term NAFTA. You know what the ‘F’ is for, right? Free and fair trade — not just free trade,” he said.

The White House 

To qualify for fast-track consideration, the White House has to alert Congress 90 days ahead of starting talks on NAFTA or any other trade deal.

Trump told four lawmakers — Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), panel ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and top Democrat Richard Neal (Mass.), who will oversee the trade agenda, he wants to “speed it up if possible.”

Trump said he didn’t care if “it’s a renovation of NAFTA or a brand-new NAFTA, but we do have to make it fair, and it’s very unfair to the American worker and very, very unfair to companies that do business in this country.”

After the meeting, Hatch said taking a closer look at NAFTA is the right move. 

“Given that the trade pact is now more than two decades old, a reexamination of the agreement to ensure it remains the best possible deal for American workers and entrepreneurs in the 21st century global economy makes sense,” Hatch said.  

“Ultimately, major shifts in policy are decisions that should made with the consultation of Congress which, under the U.S. Constitution, has authority over tariffs,” he said.

Mexican announced on Wednesday that it has started the 90-day clock for NAFTA talks.

Trump has riled Mexico in recent days, telling his Mexican counterpart that the nation will pay for a massive border wall and saying he would send in U.S. troops to deal with Mexico’s “bad hombres.”

Mexico denies that Trump’s remarks were threatening.

During his remarks to lawmakers, the president said that Wilbur Ross, his nominee to lead the Commerce Department, whom he called “one of the great people of Wall Street,” will be representing the United States in trade negotiations.

“We will have a whole new picture by the time we finish,” Trump said.