Trump vows to ‘start renegotiating’ NAFTA with Mexico, Canada

TIL Desk World/Washington/ US President Donald Trump has pledged to begin renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement in upcoming talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

“We’re meeting with the prime minister of Canada and we will be meeting with the president of Mexico, who I know, and we’re going to start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA,” Trump said while addressing White House staff on his second full day in office.

Trump will receive his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto on January 31. No date has been given for a meeting with Canada’s Justin Trudeau, but it is expected “soon,” according to a readout from a call between the two leaders on Saturday.

Trump praised the Mexican leader, saying: “The president has been really very amazing and I think we are going to have a very good result for Mexico, for the United States, for everybody involved. It’s very important.”

As a candidate Trump made a surprise visit to Mexico in a bid to portray himself as a capable statesman on the international stage. The meeting turned controversial after Pena Nieto and Trump contradicted each other’s accounts of the encounter.