Posted on 12/22/2016 4:59:52 AM PST by expat_panama
Could Trump single-handedly tear up NAFTA or tax U.S. companies that outsource?...
...Trump calls himself a free-trader. That self-assessment would appear to depend on what the meaning of free is...
...Trump has flip-flopped on everything from political affiliation (Republican, Democrat, Independent) to issues (a womans right to choose) to wives (three so far). But the one constant dating back at least to the 1980s is his protectionist stance on trade...
...Does Trump have the unilateral authority to do what he says he will do under the power... ...as president of the United States?
The short answer is this: The president does have broad unilateral authority to negotiate trade deals...
...loads of impediments legal, economic, political, practical to the actual exercise of that power, including Congress role in approving any agreement negotiated by the president.
Lets take a look at a few the more outrageous claims Trump has made and put them to the test.
1. Were going to have to impose a major tax on companies that leave... ...the president does not have the authority to target individual companies with punitive taxes...
2. I am going to instruct my Treasury Secretary to label China a currency manipulator.... ...pointing a finger at China for trying to give its manufacturers a competitive edge...
3. Im going tell our NAFTA partners that ... ...America intends to withdraw from the deal... ...agreements are pretty open-ended in terms of presidential authority, but...
...Any attempt by Trump to withdraw unilaterally from NAFTA would have adverse economic repercussions...
...Trumps standard refrain that NAFTA is the single worst trade deal ever negotiated isnt supported by facts...
...NAFTA couldnt have been that bad because it served as a template or model for the new generation of foreign-trade agreements negotiated by the U.S. and for subsequent multilateral agreements...
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
No, if the treaty was passed by Congress, as Nafta was, it’s a law. But if Mexico and Canada agree to renegotiate bits of it, then Nafta does allow for that.
one more in a long line of anti Trump bull shit!
We are IN A TRADE WAR.
There is no such thing as a one-sided war.
We just need to fiht back.
Other countries are not as stupid as liberal democrats in the USA. They look at these insane deals they made, and say “HOLEECRUD LOOK AT WHAT THEY ARE LETTING US DO TO THEM!!!!!”
We just need to fight back and stop the idiocy.
I'm seriously asking. I'm not familiar with the site, so I do not know how fair and balanced (or possibly unbalanced) it is.
No it's not, it's a treaty and lots of presidents have just upped and cancelled 'em:
---and more recently:
But it has always been the GOP that opposed renegotiating NAFTA, while the dems have always supported it.
After GHW Bush negotiated and signed NAFTA, many dems thought that the investor protections in Chapter 11 far exceeded the protections for labor and environment.
Bill Clinton would negotiate the parallel agreement to NAFTA that contained the protections for labor and environment, which were called the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation and North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. These agreements and NAFTA would then be ratified by Congress and go into effect Jan 1, 1994.
But, these parallel agreements turned out to be toothless because they weren't written into NAFTA and the dems have been agitating since to renegotiate NAFTA and put the protections for labor and environment into NAFTA.
Mexico has already publicly stated that they have objections to renegotiating the protections for labor and environment.
There is a conspiracy theory among many democrats that the GOP is using the FTAs as a method to roll back the Great Society and the New Deal.
It doesn't matter. Past presidents have revoked treaties and nobody stopped 'em. Another question is should he withdraw us. Fine, but nobody's asking me. My favorite question is will he withdraw us and Trump's talk these days is "renegotiate" not "withdraw".
Fine w/ me.
huh, I've heard the GOP oppose cancelling the treaty but renegotiating has been continuous business-as-usual since day one.
President Trump will also have a phone and a pen.
you’re flat wrong. It’s law, passed by congress, signed by Clinton in Dec 1993.
But if Trump decided not to honor it and those countries would not renegotiate it, they would stand to lose more than the US.
We’re the largest market on the planet. They’ll be happy to renegotiate these unfair trade agreements. It’s either play fair, or eat their stuff.
Well, the US economy would shut down completely throwing tens of millions out of work, but other than that, you’re right.
THANK YOU!!!
What we’ve been enduring for decades is far more akin to a skinny kid getting beat up on a playground than a ‘trade war’. Doing ANYTHING at all besides blindly accept lopsided ‘trade’ agreements and standing by with our thumbs up our behinds while companies offshore by the thousands would be a massive improvement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.