{"id":819285,"date":"2018-07-03T16:47:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T16:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=819285"},"modified":"2018-07-03T16:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-03T16:47:00","slug":"mexicos-president-elect-vows-to-preserve-nafta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=819285","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s president-elect vows to preserve NAFTA"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-819287 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/theGlobe.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"318\" height=\"159\" data-id=\"819287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/theGlobe.png 318w, https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/theGlobe-300x150.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><\/span><\/h1>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<ul class=\"yiv6225592186art-byline\">\n<li class=\"yiv6225592186art-source\">The Globe and Mail (Alberta Edition)<\/li>\n<li class=\"yiv6225592186art-date\">July 3, 2018<\/li>\n<li class=\"yiv6225592186art-author\">ADRIAN MORROW WASHINGTON<\/li>\n<li class=\"yiv6225592186art-author\">STEPHANIE NOLEN MEXICO CITY<\/li>\n<li class=\"yiv6225592186art-author\">DANIEL LEBLANC OTTAWA<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Leftist leader says he wants bilateral agreement with Canada if U.S. pulls out<\/p>\n<p>Mexico\u2019s left-wing president-elect is promising to avoid fighting with Donald Trump, stay the course in renegotiating NAFTA \u2013 and keep the pact as a bilateral agreement with Canada if the U.S. President pulls out.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is again floating the possibility of cutting separate deals with Canada and Mexico, while his administration warns Ottawa that fighting back against his steel and aluminum tariffs will not end the trade war.<\/p>\n<p>After a landslide election victory Sunday, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rushed to reassure businesses and his country\u2019s trading partners that he is committed to the trilateral agreement and to trying to get along with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not fight. We will always look for an agreement,\u201d he told the Televisa network Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are never going to disrespect the U.S. government, because we want them to respect us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jesus Seade Kuri, an Oxford-trained economist tapped as Mr. Lopez Obrador\u2019s NAFTA pointman, told The Globe and Mail that Mr. Lopez Obrador will stick with the current centrist administration\u2019s negotiating positions at the NAFTA table, which mostly consist of trying to preserve as much of the open market as possible in the face of the Trump administration\u2019s protectionist demands.<\/p>\n<p>And if Mr. Trump makes good on his threats to withdraw the United States from the North American free-trade agreement, Mexico will remain in the pact with Canada, Mr. Seade said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be an agreement from which one party pulls out and the other two stay in place,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cCanada is an essential [trading partner] \u2013 it\u2019s such a big economy, with so much in common with us and we already have the most exemplar treaty around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canadian officials have indicated that, in the event Mr. Trump exercises NAFTA\u2019s Article 2205 and bails on the deal, they would remain in the pact with Mexico, and hope a future U.S. administration would opt to rejoin.<\/p>\n<p>Canada and Mexico have even begun to negotiate at least one bilateral measure: an update to NAFTA\u2019s Chapter 11 provisions that allow corporations to sue governments at special trade panels. The United States has said it wants out of Chapter 11, so Canada and Mexico are working on a new, more professionalized system that would apply only to them.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump said he\u2019d had \u201ca lot of good conversation\u201d during a 30-minute call with Mr. Lopez Obrador on Monday. \u201cWe talked about NAFTA, we talked about a separate deal \u2013 just Mexico and the United States,\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>So far, Canada and Mexico have insisted on keeping NAFTA talks trilateral, but Mr. Trump has repeatedly mused about instead cutting separate trade pacts with each country. The three sides are set to resume negotiations this month. Mr. Trump said over the weekend that he did not expect to conclude a deal until after U.S. congressional elections in November.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump\u2019s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, scolded Canada for retaliating over the weekend against the United States\u2019 steel and aluminum tariffs. Ottawa imposed equivalent tariffs of its own on $16.6-billion worth of U.S. goods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been very nice to Canada for many years, and they\u2019ve taken advantage of that,\u201d Ms. Sanders told a White House news briefing. \u201cEscalating tariffs against the United States does nothing to help Canada, and it only hurts American workers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Lopez Obrador also spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday. The Prime Minister\u2019s office said the pair talked about NAFTA and \u201cco-operating on an agenda to create good jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Lopez Obrador will not be sworn in as president until Dec. 1, but his party and its allies have won control of the Mexican senate \u2013 which takes office Sept. 1, and must ratify the new NAFTA deal \u2013 giving him significant sway over the country\u2019s negotiating strategy.<\/p>\n<p>Some U.S. officials believe Mr. Lopez Obrador will be easier to deal with than incumbent Enrique Pena Nieto, said an industry source briefed by the American side, because he is not beholden to multinational corporations and could be more amenable to Trump administration demands such as higher minimum wages in the auto industry.<\/p>\n<p>A veteran politician and former Mexico City mayor, Mr. Lopez Obrador ran something of a dual campaign. To his supporters, he presented as a populist firebrand, vowing to increase spending on social programs and make rich people pay more by cracking down on corruption. To business leaders and the international media, he tried to show a more moderate face, endorsing free trade in his platform and promising not to cancel contracts or nationalize the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Lorenzo Meyer, one of Mexico\u2019s most prominent historians who has known Mr. Lopez Obrador for decades, said the president-elect comes from outside the country\u2019s ruling class. A small-town guy from Tabasco, Mr. Lopez Obrador once spent five years living in Indigenous communities and, unlike many members of the elite, does not speak English.<\/p>\n<p>While Mexico transitioned to a legitimate democracy in 2000, it has struggled to overcome a culture of corruption and corporatism that has seen the benefits of economic growth shared unevenly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Mexican political system has become extractive, in which the political elite is invested in extracting as much as it can and giving as little as possible in return,\u201d Mr. Meyer said. \u201cThe institutions to fight corruption already exist \u2212 he isn\u2019t going to invent them. He wants them to be used.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence Herman, a former Canadian diplomat who practises international trade law, said Canada can be reassured by Mr. Lopez Obrador\u2019s vows not to change his country\u2019s approach to NAFTA. The problem remains with Mr. Trump\u2019s administration, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The President has threatened to escalate his trade war by hitting autos with tariffs. And in NAFTA talks, he has demanded Canada lower trade barriers on dairy products while allowing the United States to erect new barriers on government contracting, do away with the Chapter 19 dispute-resolution mechanism and insert a sunset clause that could kill the deal in five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t quite know how Trump \u2026 will respond to Canada\u2019s countermeasures,\u201d Mr. Herman said. \u201cUnless the Trump administration shows some flexibility, I\u2019m not sure how much further those negotiations can go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/CommonStockWarrants.com\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-713209 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/cswsmallbanner-01-300x120.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"120\" data-id=\"713209\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Globe and Mail (Alberta Edition) July 3, 2018 ADRIAN MORROW WASHINGTON STEPHANIE NOLEN MEXICO CITY DANIEL LEBLANC OTTAWA &nbsp; Leftist leader says he wants bilateral agreement with Canada if U.S. pulls out Mexico\u2019s left-wing president-elect is promising to avoid fighting with Donald Trump, stay the course in renegotiating NAFTA \u2013 and keep the pact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[379,138,137,76,135,338],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819288,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819285\/revisions\/819288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}