Future Senate Finance Chairman Says NAFTA Withdrawal Could Be Helpful

A withdrawal of the U.S. from NAFTA by President Donald Trump could help push the new NAFTA through Congress, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who will take over the Senate Finance Committee next year. Grassley, who was speaking on an agriculture radio program on Dec. 3, also praised the president's approach to trade more broadly.

The current Senate Finance Committee chairman and a leader in the House of Representatives have said a withdrawal would not help ratification (see 1812030040 and 1812040029).

Grassley said that the Trump administration probably won't submit a draft implementing bill to Congress any earlier than Jan. 3, 2019. "If he submits it to Congress and that very same day, he says: 'In 60 days I'm pulling out of NAFTA,' and you have no agreement that lowers tariffs, and go back to what the law was prior to 1993, it seems to me, it's going to force Congress to act even if you disagree with parts of it. Now that's a hard-nosed approach but sometimes the president has to use that, if he wants to get things accomplished."

Grassley said that 15 months ago many thought the president's approach on trade "wasn't a very wise strategy," but now with the China detente, the new NAFTA, and the opening of trade talks with Japan and Europe, maybe Trump's approach "is going to pay off for a better future." He said he thinks it is a positive development that China offered to buy U.S. agriculture products during the dinner that President Xi Jinping had with Trump while both were in Argentina for the G-20, and that the threats of increased Section 301 tariffs is delayed for 90 days. "And I think will be delayed forever if China in the next 90 days shows progress in negotiating with us," Grassley said.