US President Donald Trump has announced that he will begin renegotiation of the NAFTA free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, as he promised during the election campaign.

Trump has already called NAFTA the “worst” trade deal of all time.

“We’re going to meet with the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico, who I know, and we’re going to begin negotiations on NAFTA,” Trump said during his speech. spoke to White House staff on his second day as president.

To meet

In his speech on Sunday, Trump boasted about his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Peña Nieto, whom he considers “absolutely fantastic,” and he also said he believes in a very good outcome with Mexico. The two men will meet at the White House on January 31.

It is not yet clear when the meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take place, but it will take place “soon”, according to a transcript of a telephone conversation between Trump and Trudeau on Saturday. Trudeau recently said he was open to renegotiating the deal.

Nieto’s office reported Sunday evening, according to Reuters that the president, in a telephone conversation with Trudeau, agreed to work together to promote economic growth in North America.

NAFTA

NAFTA stands for North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement has existed since 1994. In one of several policy documents posted Friday on the White House website, it was announced that if the NAFTA partners do not agree to renegotiate the agreement, the states -United States would withdraw unilaterally. This trade policy document references Trump’s lifetime experience as a trade negotiator.

Even before he was sworn in as president, Trump made sure to pressure several automakers to relocate their production to the United States rather than Mexico. The Mexican peso has fallen significantly and the exchange rate is now at a record low against the dollar.