Trump's America First Trade Agenda Roiled by Internal Divisions
By ANA SWANSONOCT. 20, 2017
WASHINGTON — A fight over President Trump’s trade agenda is playing out in the White House as top advisers spar over how far the United States should go in implementing the America First trade policies the president has promised to enact.
On one side are Peter Navarro — a trade skeptic tapped by Mr. Trump to run the newly created Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy — and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative leading negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta. On the other side are more moderate voices, including Gary Cohn, head of the National Economic Council; Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin; Chief of Staff John F. Kelly; and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster. Tensions over the direction of White House trade policy have risen in recent weeks with the growing possibility that the nearly 25-year-old Nafta agreement will crumble entirely.
Mr. Navarro came to the White House with multiple trade actions written and ready for the president’s signature. Designed to fulfill the president’s campaign promises, they included a directive to begin withdrawing from Nafta, which Mr. Trump has frequently maligned as the “worst deal” in history.
Mr. Navarro’s initial attempt to leave Nafta was blocked by Mr. Cohn, according to interviews with current and former government officials and others familiar with the deliberations who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two subsequent attempts by Mr. Navarro to trigger the Nafta withdrawal process were also stopped by Mr. Cohn.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/politics/trumps-america-first-trade-agenda-roiled-by-internal-divisions.html
