Get the latest market trends in your inbox
Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with the Axios Markets newsletter. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Minneapolis-St. Paul
Tampa-St. Petersburg news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa-St. Petersburg
Andrew Harnik/AP
President Trump will sign an executive order requiring a sweeping review of all U.S. trade deals, Politico reports.
It's all about NAFTA and the WTO: Most of America's 14 free-trade deals are with nations, like Isreal, that don't crack the top ten U.S. trade partners. Substantive changes to trade policy would have to come through the renegotiation of NAFTA — roughly 30% of U.S. trade is done with Canada or Mexico — and a fundamental rethink of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a series of multilateral treaties that culminated in the launch of the World Trade Organization in 1994.
Deficits nations, unite!: It's difficult to see what incentives WTO nations would have for changing this framework, unless the Administration is able to form a coalition of trade-deficit nations, like the U.K., Australia, and (ironically) Mexico to fight trade imbalance collectively.