Obama Likely to Delay Overhaul of NAFTA

The recession, the collapsing auto industry, and the two wars that the nation is currently involved in are the issues that require immediate attention when the new administration takes office next year. As a result, President-elect Obama’s desired revision of NAFTA, the world’s largest trade agreement, may be delayed as the administration focuses on the economic crisis.

As further indication that NAFTA will not receive the priority that some Obama supporters anticipated, according to an article published by the Miami Herald, found here, some Democratic lawmakers and union leaders who worked for Obama in battleground industrialized states say blocking trade deals with Colombia and South Korea, as well as taking a harder line against China, are higher priorities.

But Obama cannot entirely ignore the trade agreement, which, in his campaign, he said he would advocate withdrawal from unless he could renegotiate its terms.  According to three advisers, Obama will order a study of the agreement and then seek longer-term negotiations with Mexico and Canada on how to change its provisions.

Any action that the administration settles on will be challenged by the leaders of Mexico and Canada, who have publicly voiced opposition to any renegotiation of NAFTA.  Obama will have to weigh that resistance against the sentiment of an increasingly protectionist Congress, according to the Miami Herald, in taking any action in the coming term.