Pool report: Trump is calling this "the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement," says he wants to get rid of the name NAFTA, says, "We’ll see if Canada can be part of" the deal.
This is not what his administration is doing. His administration is working on a three-country NAFTA.
This is not what his administration is doing. His administration is working on a three-country NAFTA.
Basically, what keeps happening is that Trump says things about making two separate two-country deals with Canada and with Mexico, then his administration just keeps working on the three-country NAFTA. His rhetoric has often had almost no connection to the actual negotiations.
Trump quote: "They used to call it NAFTA. We're going to call it the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement...we'll get rid of the name NAFTA...it has a bad connotation."
In another unusual scene, Trump patched through Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto by speakerphone. After congratulating EPN, he sat at his desk looking around and looking down in silence as EPN spoke to him through a translator.
EPN emphasized to Trump that Canada should quickly rejoin the talks.
Trump to EPN: "I have a lot of good meetings that people weren't sure if they were good..."
Trump, nonsensically: "As far as Canada's concerned, we haven't started with Canada yet. We wanted to do Mexico." They've been negotiating with Canada for a year...
Trump: "Canada will start negotiations shortly. I'll be calling the prime minister very soon...and if they'd like to negotiate fairly, we'll do that." He complains about Canadian dairy tariffs.
Trump threatens Canada: "The easiest thing we can do is tariff their cars coming in...it's a very simple negotiation, it could end in one day."
Trump repeats that he considers this "the U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement." He adds: "We'll see whether we'll decide to put up Canada...or just make a separate deal with Canada...the simplest deal is already made."
Again, his administration is just working on a three-country NAFTA.
Again, his administration is just working on a three-country NAFTA.
Trump is providing no details whatsoever. "It's an incredible deal," he says.
Trump claims that the Mexican government has promised him to immediately start purchasing "as much farm product as they can." No idea what he's talking about
After Trump threatens Canada and says he might want to exclude Canada from the final deal, EPN says again that Mexico wants Canada to rejoin the negotiations fast, wants a three-country deal.
It's just so bizarre - the president is issuing dramatic threats against Canada and saying he might not want a three-country NAFTA anymore while his NAFTA negotiators are scrambling to try to make a three-country NAFTA deal in the next week or so.
"This is one of the largest trade deals ever made, maybe the largest trade deal ever made," Trump says of something that is not a trade deal and would not be the largest trade deal ever made even if it were a trade deal.
I expected Trump to oversell and mis-sell what has happened, but he has exceeded my expectations.
Trump says negotiatons with Canada will be "smaller," because Mexico is a much larger trading partner. U.S. trade with Canada was more than $50 billion larger than U.S. trade with Mexico last year.
Well, that event is over.
Trump super-casually said he'll be "terminating the existing deal." Until we hear more, I'd be skeptical that he is actually doing that. It is very clear that he does not know what he's talking about and that he's making this up as he goes.
Some details!
Updated story: The U.S. has made a breakthrough with Mexico...which the president is describing in a way at odds with reality while also threatening Canada in a way his negotiators might just ignore: thestar.com/news/world/201…
New: Senior Trump official says they’ll notify Congress of a US-Mex agreement on Friday no matter what: “Ideally Canada will be in it and we’ll be able to notify that. If Canada’s not in we’ll notify that we have an agreement with Mexico and we’re open to Canada joining us.”
This is unusual. Asked if Mexico has actually *agreed* to be part of a bilateral deal without Canada - agreed to be part of the deal the Trump team says it's submitting to Congress! - a senior administration official would not respond directly.
In summary, the Trump administration is trying to squeeze Canada by saying "the train is leaving the station with Mexico, get on board or don't" - even though it's not clear Mexico has agreed to have the train leave the station without Canada. I'm not sure of the legalities here.
Other news: Senior administration official says they've agreed on an "alternative" to the auto-termination "sunset" clause, which Trudeau has called a dealbreaker. Not yet clear what Canada thinks of the alternative.
Per senior admin official, this is the proposed US alternative to the sunset clause: the new agreement would have a 16-year term, rather than an indefinite term like the current NAFTA. Every six years, the parties would do a review and could decide to renew another 16 years. 1/2
If one of the parties decided, at the 6-year mark, not to renew for another 16 years, they'd meet every year to try to resolve whatever the issue was that was preventing renewal.
Asked what they'll call this deal if not NAFTA if Canada joins, there was a pause, and then a senior administration official said they'll figure something out.
The Trump administration is simultaneously calling this a "preliminary agreement in principle" and a complete bilateral trade agreement it will notify Congress of on Friday. Got it? Excellent. 
Here's the official transcript of most of Trump's remarks about Canada today.
Here are more of Trump's remarks on Canada.
Updated story: Trump uses novel tactic to try to squeeze Trudeau into NAFTA concessions: thestar.com/news/world/201…
Bloomberg reports Mexican government is on board for a no-Canada deal with the US if necessary, though it prefers a three-country deal:
It's very much unclear that Trump admin has the authority to immediately send a US-Mex deal through Congress after initiating a US-Canada-Mex renegotiation, and GOPers want Canada involved...but they haven't exactly been eager to stand up to the president.
Adios to the former Mexico-Canada unity:
It's not yet clear to me how much Trudeau govt knew about what was going on with the US and Mexico. Officials had said they were happy those two were resolving their issues, since that's necessary for NAFTA. Now US and Mexico are saying "join us or we're going off without you."
Shares of Canadian auto-parts companies have jumped on today's NAFTA news. Despite the threats and bluster toward Canada, and all the lingering confusion, the U.S. breakthrough with Mexico still makes a final three-country accord more likely. ctvnews.ca/business/canad…
