After considering the process of withdrawal, President Trump told Canadian and Mexican leaders that he would not take action in terminating the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), according to the New York Times and other news outlets.
Trump's decision to remain in NAFTA came the same day a senior administration official revealed the White House was considering an executive order to withdraw from the trade accord.
The White House added that Trump "agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time" and that all three leaders "agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation" of the trade deal to "the benefit of all three countries".
He says he believes "that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better".
After months of relative quiet on NAFTA and Mexico on the part of the Trump administration, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that the president may be poised to sign a document signaling his intent to pull the United States out of the 23-year old trade pact within six months.
Drafted by Peter Navarro, director of the National Trade Council, with help from chief strategist Steve Bannon, the order would have been a win for advocates of economic nationalism in Mr. Trump's White House. Stocks in both USA neighbors also weakened, with Mexico's benchmark IPC index falling more than 1 percent in 15 minutes. And it is unclear what would happen next.
Earlier this week, Trump slapped tariffs on softwood lumber imports from Canada, after calling the country's dairy practices "unfair".
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Trump has been railing against Canada's decision to change its policy on pricing domestic milk to cover more dairy ingredients, leading to lower prices for products, including ultra-filtered milk.
"I am very upset with NAFTA". "I would say that NAFTA has obviously been a top priority for the President from Day 1 and it's safe to say we've been working on addressing the issues with it since the beginning", the official said. However, a White House official told the Guardian on Wednesday that the situation was "more complicated" than reported. The United States went from running a small trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63 billion deficit in 2016.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.
In an eight-page draft letter to Congress, acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen Vaughn wrote that the administration meant to start talking with Mexico and Canada about making changes to the pact, which took effect in 1994.
Reports Wednesday of the possible move drew objections from some in Congress, including Sen. "Yes, there are places where our agreements could be modernized but here's the bottom line: trade lowers prices for American consumers and it expands markets for American goods".
And Sen. John McCain on Wednesday urged Trump not to pull the U.S. from NAFTA.
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