White House studying executive order to withdraw from NAFTA

Washington, April 27 (IANS) The White House is considering announcing US's unilateral withdrawal from the NAFTA signed with Mexico and Canada, media reports said on Wednesday citing a draft of the executive order, which is under discussion.

Via this prospective executive order, the government of President Donald Trump would resort to the clause included in the trade pact, inaugurated in 1994, allowing a member to withdraw from the agreement six months after providing formal notification to the other members, Efe news reported.

The draft had been created by Peter Navarro, the director both of Trade and Industrial Policy and of the White House National Trade Council, and by key Trump strategist Steve Bannon, Politico reported.

However, it said that the text is in its initial stages of discussion and could be revised and become part of other proposals on the North American Free Trade Agreement that the President is considering.

In this case, the aim would not be so much to withdraw from NAFTA, which Trump has called a "disaster" for the US, but rather to force Mexico and Canada to more fully engage in renegotiating the trade pact.

Trump said last week that NAFTA had been extremely bad for US companies and workers and he was intending to make big changes in it or take the US out of it once and for all.

Although initially, Trump had directed his anti-NAFTA attacks primarily at Mexico, this week the administration announced the implementation of tariffs on Canadian lumber imports.