President Donald Trump says a trade deal he’s reportedly worked out with Mexico will be good for jobs, and good for the American people.
Trump’s deal is one that he says would cancel out the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, but Congresswoman Cheri Bustos tells WGIL the devil will be in the details.
“The announcement.. doesn’t have a whole lot of details, which is somewhat typical that we’ve seen,” Bustos said. “It mentions workers in the automotive industry, it mentions automotive parts, it does not mention agriculture at all.”
When told that Trump said the trade deal would be great for agriculture, Bustos said, “I hope it is great.”
While farmers say NAFTA was generally good for them, Bustos tells WGIL maybe it is time for that deal — or at least the name of it — goes away.
“The fact that he no longer wants to call it NAFTA, maybe that’s a benefit. Because you know we look at a community like Galesburg… Maytag up and left [14 years ago] and a lot of folks blame NAFTA for that, a lot of people in organized labor despise NAFTA.””
As to farmers liking NAFTA, meanwhile, Bustos says that’s where something has to be worked out — because as agriculture-driven she says the economy in this area is, it’s also driven by manufacturing, so something needs to be done to help both industries.
