<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="border-style: none none solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-width: 1pt; padding: 0in 0in 3pt; background-color: white;" class=""><h3 style="margin: 10pt 0in 7.5pt; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Cambria, serif; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); border: none; padding: 0in;" class=""><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);" class="">Inside US Trade<o:p class=""></o:p></span></h3></div><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; background-color: white; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="font-size: 22pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" class="">Trump: Ross to lead accelerated NAFTA talks<o:p class=""></o:p></span></h1><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">February 02, 2017<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Wilbur Ross, President Trump's pick for Commerce secretary, will lead accelerated talks with Mexico and Canada on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, Trump said today.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Meeting with the leaders of the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance committee at the White House and flanked by Ross and other senior trade advisers, Trump decried NAFTA as a “catastrophe” and declared “I want to change it.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Praising what he called an “all-star team of top-level people that are working on trade,” Trump said Ross is “going to be representing us in negotiations” along with “other great people.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">More from Trump:<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">We are working very hard, and will be very soon, as soon as we get the go ahead, we have the 90-day period that we have to think about but we want to get that whole thing kick-started and going. We have some statutory limits, and we don't have to have those statutory limits so it's very important. I have very serious concerns about NAFTA. NAFTA's been a catastrophe for our country, it's been a catastrophe for our workers and jobs and our companies that are leaving our country. I want to change it. And maybe we do it.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Maybe we do a new NAFTA, and we put an extra F in the term NAFTA. You know what the F is for, right? Free and fair trade. Not just free trade. Free and fair trade. Because it's very unfair.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></i></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">A White House pool report quotes Trump as saying “all of the statutory guidelines we're adherering to I would like to speed it up if possible.<br class=""><br class="">“I don't care if it's a renovation of NAFTA or a brand-new NAFTA but we do have to make it fair and it's very unfair to the American worker and very very unfair to companies,” he said.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class=""> </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; background-color: white;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Of Ross, Trump said he was “one of the greats. And he's fair, and he's fair to other countries – will be fair to other countries. And I think we're going to have a whole new picture by the time we're finished.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);" class=""> </span></div></body></html>