GOP lawmakers are waiting for President Donald Trump to move forward on trade agreements as concern on the matter rises, The Hill reported.
"I talked to a group of people from Texas today, from San Antonio, and I said the two things that concern me the most about the Texas economy are the negotiation of NAFTA and the border adjustment tax," Sen. Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters last week.
"There's some uncertainty about the direction of the administration," he said in a later interview. "For my state, it's a big deal, and I would argue it's also a big deal for the country. Six million American jobs depend on bi-national trade with Mexico alone."
Trump, three days into his presidency, withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has in the past talked about how much he disliked the North American Free Trade Agreement. But last Monday, he said he would only be "tweaking" NAFTA after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"It's a much less severe situation than what's taken place on the southern border," Trump said at the news conference when asked whether Canada could expect big or small changes to the agreement. "For many, many years, the transaction was not fair to the United States.
"We're going to work with Mexico. We're going to make it a fair deal for both parties."
Some Republicans are concerned about Mexico seeking to expand trade ties with Europe and Asia, while GOP lawmakers in farm states have expressed frustration because commodity prices have slumped, The Hill reported.
Sen. John Thune, among a group of Republican Senators to meet privately with Trump officials last Tuesday, said he was not sure what direction the administration was going in.
"They clearly have a different view on some of these trade matters than has been the sort of traditional Republican trade view on Capitol Hill," he said.
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