Trump commerce secretary says new study proves need for NAFTA changes
With the next round of NAFTA negotiations set to begin in Ottawa, U.S. President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary says a new study proves the need for tougher rules on auto-parts imports in the continental trade agreement.
Wilbur Ross, says a study from his department to be released Friday shows American content dropped six per cent in Canadian auto imports, and 10 per cent in Mexican imports, from 1995, the year after NAFTA was enacted, through 2011.
Ross wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post that the majority of this shifted imports away from North America, to continents not subject to the three-country trade agreement, in an apparent reference to growing purchases from Asia.
Ross wrote that this demonstrates the need to toughen the rules under NAFTA to increase how much content must come from within this continent to avoid tariffs.