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> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Robert Lighthizer, an official in the Reagan administration and harsh critic of China’s trade practices, to be his chief trade negotiator, responsible for better deals aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump arrive for a New Year's Eve celebration with members and guests at the Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. December 31, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump, who promised during his presidential campaign to renegotiate international trade deals like NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas, said in announcing his choice that Lighthizer would help “fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first.”Lighthizer is a former deputy U.S. trade representative under former Republican President Ronald Reagan who helped to stem the tide of imports from Japan in the 1980s with threats of quotas and punitive tariffs.

His return to the agency follows nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. steelmakers and other companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases.

Lighthizer has argued that China has failed to live up to commitments made in 2001 when it joined the World Trade Organization and that tougher tactics are needed to change the system, even if it means deviating from World Trade Organization rules.

“Years of passivity and drift among U.S. policymakers have allowed the U.S.­-China trade deficit to grow to the point where it is widely recognized as a major threat to our economy,” Lighthizer wrote in 2010 congressional testimony.

“Going forward, U.S. policymakers should take these problems more seriously, and should take a much more aggressive approach in dealing with China,” he wrote.

Lighthizer is regarded as an experienced tactician with an intimate knowledge of trade tools that were widely used before the WTO was created in 1995, including “Section 301” tariffs used to stem a tide of imports of Japanese steel and vehicles in the 1980s.

During his tenure, Reagan struck the 1985 Plaza Accord currency deal with Japan, Germany and other major trading partners that brought down the dollar’s value and encouraged more foreign companies to set up U.S. manufacturing plants.

“Bob Lighthizer is very smart, very strategic and totally fearless,” said a Washington attorney who has worked with him for three decades but asked not to be named. “You can expect him to use every tool available to create leverage to get China and anyone else to stop the cheating. He is no fan of the WTO.”

Still, Lighthizer is not expected to be the Trump administration’s leading voice on trade policy. Last month, Trump’s team said that task would fall to the U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross..

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has also named Peter Navarro, an economist and adviser who has urged a hard line against China, as the head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council. </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> Tuesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump announced the nomination of Ambassador Robert Lighthizer as U.S. Trade Representative, one of the final four Cabinet-level positions he will need to fill to complete his administration.

Lighthizer served as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative under President Ronald Reagan, and played a leading role in developing trade policy by negotiating roughly two dozen bilateral international agreements on a variety of topics from steel to grain. The emphasis under President-elect Trump will be to repeat his success in the 1980s by significantly reducing the shipment of "unfairly traded" imports into the United States.

"Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first," the president-elect said. "He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans. He will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity."

The Presidential Transition Team issued the following statement about Lighthizer:

In his new role, Ambassador Lighthizer will work in close coordination with Secretary of Commerce-designate Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, head of the newly created White House National Trade Council, to develop and implement policies that shrink our trade deficit, expand economic growth, strengthen our manufacturing base and help stop the exodus of jobs from our shores.

Ambassador Lighthizer has long been a leader in U.S. trade policy, and has extensive experience in the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the private sector. Aside from his service in the Reagan administration, he was Chief of Staff of the United States Senate Committee of Finance when Congress passed the Reagan program of tax cuts and spending reductions, and also aided in the passage of legislation which implemented the Tokyo Round of trade negotiations. He has also represented the United States at meetings of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and meetings related to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the precursor to the World Trade Organization).

Ambassador Lighthizer headed up the international trade law practice at Skadden, Arps Slate, Meagher and Flom for over three decades. He has represented American manufacturers in many of the largest and most significant trade cases of the last 25 years, such as the steel safeguard case of the early 2000s—the last time any president granted global safeguard relief. He has worked on scores of successful cases that resulted in reducing unfair imports and helping thousands of American workers and numerous businesses.

Ambassador Lighthizer has also been an outspoken commentator on trade issues, giving speeches and writing articles for the New York Times and other publications, as well as providing testimony to key Congressional committees, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, and other government agencies with responsibility for trade policy. He graduated from Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Law Center.

"It is a very high honor to represent our nation and to serve in President-elect Trump's administration as the U.S. Trade Representative," Lighthizer said. "I am fully committed to President-elect Trump's mission to level the playing field for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit all Americans."

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Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book. </s> US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Robert Lighthizer to be U.S. trade representative, but his influence may be limited as Trump fills his team with wealthy deal makers.

Lighthizer, an official in the Reagan administration and a harsh critic of China’s trade practices, will be tasked with seeking deals aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits. He joins Trump’s choices for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, and the head of a newly formed White House National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, as key officials in an administration where trade is very likely to take center stage.

Trump has also tapped his company’s long-time top lawyer, Jason Greenblatt, as a “special negotiator” for trade deals and other talks. It is unclear how these appointees will direct trade policy. While the Trump transition team has said the trade representative will still be the principal negotiator for trade deals, it has also said that Ross will be in charge of trade decisions.

Using multiple officials to shape trade policy is not new, said Scott Lincicome, an international trade attorney with White and Case. He noted that trade issues have often been tackled by various government agencies with differing objectives but said actual negotiations with other nations require a very clear line of authority. “If you actually have four guys show up at a trade negotiation, you’d have a problem,” said Lincicome, who stressed that countries must be certain that the U.S. negotiator has the support of the president.

“These are very high level diplomatic negotiations. Other countries take very seriously the diplomatic hierarchy. There is protocol,” he said. Trump, who promised during his campaign to renegotiate international trade deals such as NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas, has said that overhauling trade policy will be a top priority after he takes office on Jan. 20.

“USTR will still have statutory negotiation and enforcement powers, but where the big ideas on trade emerge from within a Trump administration remains to be seen,” said Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Lighthizer, deputy U.S. trade representative under Reagan, helped to stem the tide of imports from Japan in the 1980s with threats of quotas and punitive tariffs.

His return to the agency follows nearly three decades as a lawyer representing U.S. steelmakers and other companies in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases. Lighthizer is regarded as an experienced tactician with an intimate knowledge of trade tools that were widely used before the WTO was created in 1995, including “Section 301” tariffs used to stem a tide of imports of Japanese steel and vehicles in the 1980s. </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 (dpa-AFX) - President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer as U.S. trade representative, the presidential transition team announced on Tuesday.



Lighthizer, a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, previously served as deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan.



'Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,' Trump said in a statement. 



The president-elect added, 'He has extensive experience striking agreements that protect some of the most important sectors of our economy, and has repeatedly fought in the private sector to prevent bad deals from hurting Americans.'



Lighthizer's views on U.S. trade policy are seen as in line with those of Trump, who has been critical of free trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA and pledged to be tougher on counties such as China.



In a statement, Lighthizer said he is fully committed to Trump's mission to level the playing field for American workers and forge better trade policies which will benefit all Americans.



Trump's views on trade were reflected in a post to Twitter on Tuesday in which he criticized General Motors (GM) for sending a Mexican-made model of the Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers tax-free.



'General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border,' Trump tweeted. 'Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!'



(Photo: Michael Vadon)



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX </s> President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Robert Lighthizer, a lawyer and former trade official during the Reagan administration, as his nominee for U.S. trade representative.

Lighthizer was deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration. He is a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom.

“Ambassador Lighthizer is going to do an outstanding job representing the United States as we fight for good trade deals that put the American worker first,” Trump said in a statement.

The office of U.S. trade representative, created in 1962, is typically the government’s chief negotiator for trade deals and disputes.

The top job requires Senate confirmation. Under Trump, it is not expected to have as much power as it has in the past, several sources have told CNN.

Instead, the incoming administration aims to give the Commerce Department a bigger role on trade policy and negotiations, according to the sources. Trump has tapped billionaire investor Wilbur Ross as Commerce secretary.

Trump also added a wrinkle to the issue of trade policy when he named economist Peter Navarro to lead the newly created White House Trade Council.

The current trade rep, Michael Froman, was the Obama administration’s lead negotiator on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal that Trump has said he will withdraw from. </s> U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick Robert Lighthizer to serve as his U.S. Trade Representative, tapping a seasoned trade negotiator to enact a key aspect of his agenda, senior transition officials said on Monday. Lighthizer served as a deputy U.S. trade representative with the rank of ambassador under Republican President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, according to a biography posted on the web site of Skadden Arps, the law firm where he is currently a partner.

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In the decades since he has represented U.S. clients in antidumping cases and pushed to open access to foreign markets, the biography says. As Trump’s trade representative, Lighthizer would play a key role in enacting a get-tough policy that could heighten tensions with China and other key U.S. trading partners.

However, he likely will not serve as the main architect of Trump’s trade policy. According to a transition spokesman, that role will go to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who Trump has picked to serve as Commerce Secretary.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to renegotiate international trade deals like NAFTA and punish companies that ship work overseas.

Trump has kept up the rhetoric since his surprise November election. He criticized China on Twitter on Monday for “taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade” while refusing to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea.
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.