U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talks NAFTA

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said recently that withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if the “2.0” talks do not produce a successful outcome would be the “right thing” to do according to DTN’s Washington Insider. “The president has made clear that if [the talks] don’t work, he’s going to pull out … and really, that’s the right thing,” Ross said. “We need fixes to this deal. It has not worked the way that it was intended to.” At the same time, several farm and ranch groups, including R-CALF, sent an open letter to U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer. In it, they commended him for his efforts in renegotiating NAFTA and list out 12 goals/areas of focus they would like to see in the 2.0 talks: Reduce bilateral imbalances; effective currency manipulation and misalignment remedies; strengthen Rules of Origin; reinstate Country of Origin Labeling (COOL); eliminate investor state dispute settlement; automaticity of enforcement, eliminate domestic procurement chapter; improve wages and labor standards; food, product, and highway safety standards; sunset NAFTA in 10 years; perishable and cyclical products’ remedies; and address border adjustable taxes.