Following-up on my earlier post about NAFTA, now there's this from White House spokesman Sean Spicer (from Inside US Trade):
Asked at the White House about a Wall Street Journal report on the draft notice, which was published Wednesday night by Inside U.S. Trade, Spicer noted that U.S. Trade Representative nominee Robert Lighthizer isn't yet confirmed – and added that “There’s nothing in those documents that we’re confirming, or in that report rather, that we’re confirming.”
...
“That is not a statement of administration policy,” he said, adding: “That is not an accurate assessment of where we are at this time. And I think our goal is to get Robert Lighthizer appointed as the next ambassador and U.S. trade representative and then when we have that we will have plenty of updates on where we go with respect to NAFTA and the rest of our trade agreements.”
ADDED:
This is the full Spicer exchange:
Q Thank you, Sean. The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Trump administration is proposing more modest changes to NAFTA. Like, for example, they’re leaving the arbitration panel that deals with trade disputes in place, et cetera, et cetera. Is the White House backing away from some of the more sweeping changes to NAFTA that the President proposed during the campaign?
MR. SPICER: I would just argue that Robert Lighthizer isn’t even nominated yet. That is not a statement of administration policy at this point. There is nothing in those documents that we are confirming -- or in that report, rather, that we are confirming. That is not a statement of administration policy. That is not an accurate assessment of where we are at this time.
And I think our goal is to get Robert Lighthizer appointed as the next ambassador and U.S. Trade Representative, and then when we have that we will have plenty of updates on where we go with respect to NAFTA and the rest of our trade agreement.
