[CTC] White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was once an advocate for NAFTA

Thu Apr 27 10:26:47 PDT 2017

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/27/politics/kfile-sean-spicer-nafta/ <http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/27/politics/kfile-sean-spicer-nafta/>
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was once an advocate for NAFTA 

By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN

Updated 12:06 PM ET, Thu April 27, 2017 

The Trump administration this week imposed <http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/24/investing/canada-lumber-tariff-trump/> a tariff on lumber from Canada, a NAFTA partner, and has said <http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/politics/trump-nafta/> it will withdraw from the trade agreement if a "fair deal" isn't reached during renegotiation.
Sean Spicer would appear on television and in print to argue that the US had to uphold its obligations under NAFTA or else US jobs would be negatively impacted.
(CNN)One of the most public faces of Donald Trump's administration once argued that the failure of the United States to uphold its obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement would hurt American workers.

The Trump administration this week imposed <http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/24/investing/canada-lumber-tariff-trump/> a tariff on lumber from Canada, a NAFTA partner, and has said <http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/politics/trump-nafta/> it will withdraw from the trade agreement if a "fair deal" isn't reached during renegotiation.

In his current role as White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer has had to articulate Trump's position against NAFTA, saying at a press briefing in February, "The President has expressed his concern time and again with NAFTA, which he believes is an out-of-date agreement. The ultimate goal is to ensure the best and fairest treatment of U.S. workers and businesses, and the President believes that those interests are best secured by bilateral, rather than multilateral trade deals."

But prior to joining the administration, Sean Spicer would appear on television and in print to argue that the US had to uphold its obligations under NAFTA or else US jobs would be negatively impacted. 

In early 2009, after leaving his job as assistant US trade representative in the Bush administration, Spicer spoke out forcefully against a move made under President Obama that ended the cross-border trucking program with Mexico. The program gave truckers from Mexico access to U.S. highways. When the program was ended in 2009, Mexico imposed a tariff on US goods in retaliation, arguing that the action was in violation of NAFTA.

"I think the one thing that people forget is that at the end of the day, our failure to comply with NAFTA is going to result in the loss of more jobs here in America," Spicer told the Washington Post <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/17/AR2009031703218.html> in March 2009. "There are consequences for this kind of action, and they tend to build upon each other and provoke more responses. Is that really the kind of path we want to go down?"
In the Los Angeles Times <http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/11/nation/na-mexican-trucks11>, Spicer made similar comments.

"If we're not going to fulfill our obligations, I think the Mexican government will look for opportunities to take back some of their obligations under the treaty," Spicer said. "At the end of the day, this could easily affect jobs."

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Spicer said Texas would be hardest hit by the move.

"This is going to be a big problem, especially for Texas," Spicer said. "All (trade) roads lead through Texas."

"This is an attempt to pacify the unions," he added.

Linking to a CNBC appearance from his Twitter account, Spicer said such actions would cost jobs and put higher tariffs on American goods. A copy of the CNBC appearance is no longer online.

"On cnbc discussing how failure to meet our trade obligations with mexico will cost the US jobs - $2.4 billion in higher tariffs on US goods,"wrote <https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/1354945199> Spicer.

Spicer did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration imposed a 20% tariff on softwood lumber imports from Canada, a NAFTA partner. On Wednesday morning, senior administration sources told CNN that Trump was weighing an executive order to withdraw the US from NAFTA. The Trump White House then released a statement Wednesday night announcing that Trump had agreed in calls with Mexico and Canada "not to terminate NAFTA at this time" and that the leaders of the three countries would enter a negotiation of the free trade deal.
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