NAFTA is Baked into North American Auto Manufacturing
Wendy Cutler on CNBC
On January 18, 2018, ASPI Vice President Wendy Cutler appeared on CNBC to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations and how scrapping it would harm the automotive sector in the United States.
Cutler emphasized how NAFTA has benefitted the United States through increased trade and the development of supply chains between companies in the three countries. According to Cutler, “the withdrawal path… would hurt the United States, hurt our companies, and hurt their workers”. With regards to the current NAFTA re-negotiations, she encourages the Trump administration “to be more patient, to work hard, and try and find common ground with the other countries so that NAFTA can continue to exist.”
Cutler explains that with NAFTA in place, the United States benefits even when companies like Toyota—which are also investing in the U.S.— increase their investments in the Canadian and Mexican automotive sectors. This is because of how integrated automotive trade between Canada, Mexico and the United States has become, with certain auto parts crossing borders up to eight times. (3 min., 5 sec.)