Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
NAFTA PARTNERS MEXICO, Canada and the United States plan to swiftly renegotiate their free trade deal, the White House announced last night.
President Donald Trump “agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly… to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal,” a statement said.
The announcement came after reports in US media that Trump was considering giving formal notice of pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
A draft executive order was in the final stages of review, two White House officials told the Politico news website, and could be unveiled within a week or two. The New York Times had quoted a senior administration official saying Trump was likely to sign such an executive order.
But late last night Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross brushed off the reports as “rumour.”
“There was a rumour today that there would be an executive order, just a rumuor, and my practice is to comment on things we have actually done or are doing as opposed to commenting on rumours,” he said.
Disaster
Trump calls NAFTA, established 1 January, 1994, a “disaster” and has pledged to renegotiate the terms or abandon the pact altogether.
He blames NAFTA for the loss of millions of US industrial jobs, mostly to Mexico.
His administration also slapped tariffs in recent days on some imports of Canadian timber and threatened to retaliate against Canadian moves that harm US dairy farmers. Timber and milk, however, are not covered by NAFTA.
The softwood lumber dispute between Washington and Ottawa has also seen many twists and turns for nearly 35 years, with US producers accusing their Canadian counterparts of exporting lumber at subsidised prices, harming US businesses.
The lumber is a major part of the massive US construction and home-building industry — an economic bellwether. Most US homes are made with wood framing and some entirely of wood.
Earlier this week, the US Commerce Department announced it was imposing tariffs of up to 24% on Canadian softwood lumber.
Canada’s dairy sector is protected by tariffs on imports and controls on domestic production as a way to support prices for the country’s farmers.
The latest dairy trade row was triggered when Canada extended those policies to apply to ultrafiltered milk, a product used in cheese production and at the center of a thriving US export business.
The White House statement said Trump spoke late Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.
“Both conversations were pleasant and productive,” it said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Is this like jobsbridge but overseas?
How many billions have the countries mentioned spent on arms and wars in the past few decades alone?
There are thousands of Irish families in severe need, get that sorted before looking overseas for people to help.
we need all our volunteers at home to try and sort our own country out,could we just curtail the do gooding for a while,i think at this stage we are not respected for all our relentless do gooding we do,,we are probably look on as fools in some quarters.
What? Volunteering to help the worlds poorest is a bad thing? Encouraging people to expand their horizons and to help others, while doing good is bad?
Noel we have many volunteers in this country, I’m in my final year studying community development with little job prospects at the min of a job in what I’d like to. I’d rather use my 4 years education in overseas development as a volunteer and gain experience as in Ireland if I were to volunteer in this kind of work people would be saying it’s job displacement which of course it is. Now you see my situation which of the two is more beneficial to me and the community here and overseas, a year overseas working and developing my professional skills or be another statistic on the live register
Large scale aid, corruption, mass immigration along with the other globalisation policy of fractional reserve banking foisted onto the 3rd world thereby creating a massive debt burden have a lot to do with keeping Africa in poverty. The worst thing one can do is strip a country’s people of their will to fight, become resourceful or independent & siphon off the people who are most capable & energetic to effect that change. A draw down of aid, end to mass immigration, whilst fostering help in other ways would in the longer term end the cycle of constant impoverishment in the 3rd world.
How many billions in aid have we sent in addition to the above volunteer efforts for decades. Yet if indigenous Europeans wish to protect their ethnicities, protect their ethnic territories, they are told by the recipients of our generous never-ending aid, that we are evil & racist.
Volunteers me ar*e! They’ve been goin out foreign for the past 50 years and what have the done to help long term??? Nothing!! Leave them fend for themselves for once and they might start getting off their arses and help themselves!
Charity begins at home!
The immigration industry & Immigrant Council of Ireland have deemed your comment to be racist. You are being investigated for hate-speech & thought-crime.
Volunteer my arse, for what? To make some CEO a nice bonus on the back of my hard work or provide a nice election setup to a candidate claiming my work. Thats what it is really about. money ,power ,political movement, not helping people.
Some very disappointing negative opinions around volunteering. I had the pleasure of volunteering in Malawi in a clinical professional capacity for almost 6 months in 2012/13. The opportunity was very worthwhile and I believe one grows and matures in many ways from the experience. I self-funded this time away. Many are unaware that volunteering is very costly. Including opportunity cost and actual costs of flight and daily expenses I estimated that it costed €30,000 for 6 months. On this basis might it be worthwhile that the Irish government perhaps contribute less financially to individual countries but support individuals who wish to go to these countries? Additionally, I would like by law (similar to mat leave) job protection for individuals who volunteer in developing countries. In other words if an employee wants to volunteer abroad the same job protection right are afforded as a female going on mat leave.
So true it ain’t like there’s too many jobs out at home
I am too self obsessed for the volunteering lark but at least I admit it.
Though I would gladly volunteer to help the needy in Australia providing I got my flight, food and accommodation all paid for me.
have your say