The president's opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement was on full display in San Antonio, this week, as the Senate held a rare hearing away from Washington D.C, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Stephen Vaughn, the general counsel to the U.S. trade representative ripped the trade deal to shreds, saying that our neighbors to the north and south get more than we do.
"In the last ten years, our trade deficit in goods and services with Mexico has exceeded $500 billion," he explained. "Our trade deficits in goods and services with Canada over the same period is over $100 billion."
He says, if we look to trading goods alone, that difference would be almost $1 trillion. And for that reason, he says NAFTA does not represent the type of fair and reciprocal relationship that should exist when the U.S. gives special privileges to another country.
President Trump has long campaigned on his idea that NAFTA needs to be renegotiated to make a level playing field. Vaughn admits, that will not be easy.
"For a very long time, our NAFTA partners have enjoyed an agreement that is tilted in their favor. They do not want to give up that advantage and we can understand why they feel that way."
And, while that opinion is popular with the president, it was unpopular in the conference room of the Marriott hotel where NAFTA was signed in 1994. A coalition of state leaders stood up for the trade deal, saying it was vital for everything from the auto industry to farmers.
San Antonio's Mayor, Ron Nirenberg praised the deal, saying it's been transformative for the local economy.
"NAFTA created more than 60 thousand direct jobs in San Antonio," he explained. "And when multiplier effects are taken into account, the number of NAFTA related jobs are related to 135,000, earning incomes of $7.2 billion." A fifth round of negotiations are wrapping up, now, in Mexico.