Arizona NAFTA backers express concern about Trump trade policies

Audio By Carbonatix

free-trade advocates in Arizona are nervously awaiting President-elect Donald Trump’s trade policies.

Trump railed against what he called unfair trade deals that stole jobs from American workers, a message that resonated heavily in Rust Belt states that have spent decades watching factories close and manufacturing jobs move overseas. Much of Trump’s ire was directed at the North American Free Trade Agreement, a 1993 tariff elimination agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The president-elect has vowed to renegotiate or even tear up existing trade deals. He has called NAFTA “one of the worst things that ever happened to the manufacturing industry” in the United States and “the worst trade deal … ever signed in this country,” and at one point vowed to rip up the historic trade deal and renegotiate it.

If Trump follows a protectionist path on NAFTA, it could have serious implications for Arizona’s economy.

Mexico is Arizona’s largest foreign trading partner, and many business and political leaders are wary of any trade policies that could disrupt that relationship. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Arizona exported nearly $9.2 billion worth of goods to Mexico in 2015, which accounted for 40 percent of the state’s exports to other countries. The state’s $22.7 billion in total exports that year supported about 101,000 jobs in the U.S., the report said.

Though Trump, like any president, will need congressional approval for much of his agenda, altering America’s trade relationship with Mexico isn’t one of them. Under Article 2205 of NAFTA, the U.S. president can withdraw from the deal unilaterally. Any country can withdraw from the agreement after providing six months’ notice.

Read more at AZ Capitol Times

Corrie O'Connor