Trump is asking aides if the US should pull out of North American trade deal he negotiated

President Trump is reportedly asking advisors why the US should remain a part of the sweeping North American trade deal he negotiated during his first term, ahead of a mandatory review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement this summer.

Unnamed officials told Bloomberg that the president is always seeking a better deal for the American people and that the administration wasn’t looking to rubber-stamp the initial agreement, which was signed into law in early 2020.

Potential changes could include updated terms on issues like national-origin rules, critical minerals, worker protections, and dumping, an official from the US Trade Representative’s office told the outlet.

The White House has not publicly confirmed Trump is having second thoughts about the pact, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Any discussion about potential presidential action unless announced by the President himself is baseless speculation," an administration official told Reuters.

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Trump’s counterparts in the deal have not described an impending US exit.

“We don’t believe it, and it has never been said in the calls, because it is very important to them,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a news conference.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, said Tuesday he had a “positive conversation” with Trump, in a discussion that touched on the trade pact as well as Trump’s recent threat to block the opening of a long-planned bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario.

Scrapping the free trade deal, which applies to an estimated $2 trillion in goods and services and exempts many goods from U.S. tariffs, would have major implications for the North American economy and impact highly integrated cross-border industries like auto manufacturing.

The deal is set for mandatory review beginning in July. If it is renewed, it will remain in force for the next 16 years. If not, the parties can review the pact annually until it expires in 2036.

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Backing out of the agreement would also mark the latest phase in Donald Trump’s often confrontational new trade and diplomatic posture towards longstanding US partners.

The president has threatened Canada with 100 percent tariffs over its growing ties with China and has threatened levies on countries that supply oil to Cuba, including Mexico.

In a sign of ongoing North American tensions, Carney gave a landmark speech at Davos last month where he said the bedrock rules-based international order, one that the U.S. had led since the mid-1900s, was a “fiction” that was “not coming back.”

"If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate," Carney told the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation.