January 26, 2016: In a move that could potentially break the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, President Donald Trump formally withdrew the United States from the TPP trade deal on January 22.
Throughout his campaign, Trump highlighted that international trade deals are the main factor contributing to job losses in America. Keeping with what he said, Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office pulling the United States out of the 12-nation TPP.
“We’re going to stop the ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country and taken companies out of our country,” the President said as he met union leaders in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
“Great thing for the American worker,” Trump said as he signed the order on his third full day in office. The Republican says the trade deal would have damaged US manufacturing.
Trump is also in the process of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in an attempt to make it more favourable for America.
Donald Trump took office on January 20, and has promised that he will strive towards putting America first. He is likely to implement protectionist policies to achieve the same.
The uncertainty surrounding the policies that Trump’s new administration will implement has caused the dollar and Asian stocks to fall.
Neighbour Mexico is preparing to discuss changes to trade rules about a product’s country of origin to try to avoid a disruptive fight with the United States over commerce.
Mexico sees possible common ground with US President Donald Trump on the “rules of origin” of the NAFTA that binds the two countries and Canada.
Rules of origin are regulations setting out where trade products are sourced from. Although formal negotiations about NAFTA have not begun, the rules could eventually be altered to favour US industry over competitors from outside North America, particularly in Asia.
During his electoral campaign, Trump expressed his strong desire to scrap NAFTA as he felt that the agreement was much more beneficial to other parties and not the US.
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo will hold talks with top Trump officials in Washington on January 25 and 26 where security, migration and trade will be discussed.
“What we want is to maintain free access for Mexican products, without restrictions, without tariffs and quotas,” Videgaray said.