WATCH SPEECH
Published on Jun 28, 2016
Donald Trump on
Tuesday said he will demand a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade
Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
If those other
countries refuse the renegotiation, Trump said he would withdraw from the trade
pact, which would cause tariffs on imports from those countries and exports
from the United States to rise. "I'm going tell our NAFTA partners that I
intend to immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better
deal for our workers,” Trump said during remarks at an aluminum facility in
Monessen, Pa., near Pittsburgh. "And I don't mean just a little bit
better, I mean a lot better," he said.
"If they do
not agree to a renegotiation, then I will submit notice under Article 2205 of
the NAFTA agreement that America intends to withdraw from the deal.” The
presumptive Republican presidential nominee also said he would kill the
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal negotiated by President Obama, which is
the biggest trade deal since the NAFTA.
The comments
suggest Trump is going after blue-collar workers on the left and the right who
are upset with free-trade policies as he seeks to make inroads against Hillary
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Clinton's rival in
the Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has also criticized NAFTA
and the TPP, and some of Trump's remarks seemed designed to appeal to Sanders
supporters. Clinton opposes the TPP but backed it as Obama's secretary of
State. As a result, Trump argued she can't be trusted to not back the deal if
she in in the White House.
He said that
Clinton would make only small changes to the Asia-Pacific deal and “declare the
TPP pact fixed, and ram it through "and you will suffer.” "That’s why
Hillary is now only saying she has problems with TPP in its current form,"
he said. "You know what that mean, that means they’ll make a little two
word change, she’ll fix it and she’ll feel great. “If the media doesn’t believe
me," Trump added, "I have a challenge for you and Hillary.
Ask Hillary if she
is willing to withdraw from the TPP her first day in office and unconditionally
rule out its passage in any form.” Trump called NAFTA, negotiated by President
Bill Clinton, "the worst trade deal in history." The Chamber of
Commerce, which supports free-trade agreements, blasted Trump's plans on trade
in a series of tweets from its account.
Donald Trump took
aim at U.S. free trade deals in a speech delivered in Western Pennsylvania
Tuesday that painted his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a champion
of the kind of globalization that has pushed manufacturing jobs overseas.
"This wave of globalization has wiped out totally, totally our middle
class," said Trump, standing in front of stacks of compressed metal on the
floor of Alumi source, a plant that provides aluminum scrap and other raw
materials to the aluminum and steel industries. "It doesn't have to be
this way. We can turn it around and we can turn it around fast."
The speech, delivered in the heart of
America's struggling rust belt, stressed a central premise of his campaign:
that global free trade — a Republican Party staple for decades — has hurt
American workers because deals have been negotiated poorly. Trump has vowed to
bring back manufacturing jobs, in part, by slapping tariffs on goods produced
by companies that move manufacturing jobs offshore.
It's a message that
he's hoping will continue to resonate with the white, working class voters, who
powered his primary campaign. Trump, in his speech, portrayed Clinton as an
agent of a status quo "that worships globalism over Americanism" and
criticized her past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he described
as "the deathblow for American manufacturing."
He said the North
American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by Bill Clinton, was a
"disaster" and pointed to the Clintons support for normalizing trade
relations with China. He said that, as president, he would dramatically
overhaul the way the country approaches trade, threatening to wield new tariffs
and taxes to push his way. "Ladies and gentlemen, It's time to declare our
economic independence once again," he said.
He vowed to renegotiate North American Free Trade Agreement to get a
better deal "by a lot, not just a little," for American workers — and
threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the deal if his proposals aren't agreed.
"We already have a trade war. And were losing badly," Trump said. The
setting was a change of scenery for the presumptive GOP nominee. It's a change
of setting for Trump, who typically favors his own ritzy golf clubs and
ballrooms for formal speeches.
