The president says he hopes the U.S. has a good relationship with its southern neighbor, but 'if we don't, we don't.'
President Donald Trump speaks with manufacturing executives on Thursday in the White House. EVAN VUCCI/AP
President Donald Trump told a room of manufacturing CEOs Thursday that he is committed to "bringing manufacturing back to America" and is willing to play hardball with Mexico to achieve that goal.
If Mexico's feathers get ruffled in the process, he said, so be it.
"The deals we have with other countries are unbelievably bad. We don't have any good deals," he said, asserting that "everything is a deficit" and specifically highlighting America's trade shortfall with Mexico. "We're going to have a good relationship with Mexico, I hope. And if we don't, we don't."
Trump spoke Thursday at a White House gathering with executives from some of the largest manufacturing companies in America, including Ford Motor Co., Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, U.S. Steel and Johnson & Johnson, among others.
He bemoaned the country's loss of "one-third of our manufacturing jobs" since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, a statement that was correct back in 2010 during the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession.
Manufacturing payrolls are still a shadow of what they once were – down slightly less than 27 percent from where they sat in 1994, when NAFTA went into force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the economy has added more than 880,000 positions since manufacturing's post-recession bottom, and analysts attribute at least some of America's job losses to automation and competition from countries other than the NAFTA-encompassing Mexico and Canada.
"My administration's policies and regulatory reform, tax reform, trade policies will return significant manufacturing jobs to our country," Trump said. "Everything's going to be based on bringing our jobs back – the real jobs, the good jobs."
His comments come as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have traveled to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto and his allies to discuss, among other topics, border security and future trade relations.
Trump has repeatedly bashed America's trade history with Mexico, calling NAFTA a "disaster" and one of the worst deals in history. But he extended his criticism beyond that pact Thursday, telling the executives in the room that he can't find a single country in the world that maintains sensible trade relations with the U.S.
"I'm trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to a deficit. Everything is a deficit," Trump said. "I actually said to my people, 'Find a country where we actually do well.' So far we haven't found that country. It's just losses with everybody."
The U.S. is a big importer of foreign-made goods, which has fueled the national trade deficit seen in recent decades. America's largest deficit with a specific country at the end of last year was with China, standing at $347 billion, according to the Census Bureau. The country's deficit with Mexico ranked fourth, behind its deficits with Japan and Germany.
But trade is generally measured as a combination of both goods and services, and America tends to generate stronger numbers in the latter category. If Trump's team is only looking at the flow of goods, America's deficits look far starker, showing trade shortfalls with countries like Canada, Saudi Arabia and the U.K.
If services are factored in, the most recent data show the U.S. actually enjoyed surpluses with those three countries, among others.
"Let's remember to bring those services jobs back as well," Keith Leimbach, CEO of digital call-center company LiveOps told Trump on Thursday during an open portion of the meeting.
"Good, we will," Trump responded.
President Donald Trump speaks with manufacturing executives on Thursday in the White House. EVAN VUCCI/AP
President Donald Trump told a room of manufacturing CEOs Thursday that he is committed to "bringing manufacturing back to America" and is willing to play hardball with Mexico to achieve that goal.
If Mexico's feathers get ruffled in the process, he said, so be it.
"The deals we have with other countries are unbelievably bad. We don't have any good deals," he said, asserting that "everything is a deficit" and specifically highlighting America's trade shortfall with Mexico. "We're going to have a good relationship with Mexico, I hope. And if we don't, we don't."
Trump spoke Thursday at a White House gathering with executives from some of the largest manufacturing companies in America, including Ford Motor Co., Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, U.S. Steel and Johnson & Johnson, among others.
He bemoaned the country's loss of "one-third of our manufacturing jobs" since the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, a statement that was correct back in 2010 during the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession.
Manufacturing payrolls are still a shadow of what they once were – down slightly less than 27 percent from where they sat in 1994, when NAFTA went into force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the economy has added more than 880,000 positions since manufacturing's post-recession bottom, and analysts attribute at least some of America's job losses to automation and competition from countries other than the NAFTA-encompassing Mexico and Canada.
"My administration's policies and regulatory reform, tax reform, trade policies will return significant manufacturing jobs to our country," Trump said. "Everything's going to be based on bringing our jobs back – the real jobs, the good jobs."
His comments come as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have traveled to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto and his allies to discuss, among other topics, border security and future trade relations.
Trump has repeatedly bashed America's trade history with Mexico, calling NAFTA a "disaster" and one of the worst deals in history. But he extended his criticism beyond that pact Thursday, telling the executives in the room that he can't find a single country in the world that maintains sensible trade relations with the U.S.
"I'm trying to find a country where we actually have a surplus of trade as opposed to a deficit. Everything is a deficit," Trump said. "I actually said to my people, 'Find a country where we actually do well.' So far we haven't found that country. It's just losses with everybody."
The U.S. is a big importer of foreign-made goods, which has fueled the national trade deficit seen in recent decades. America's largest deficit with a specific country at the end of last year was with China, standing at $347 billion, according to the Census Bureau. The country's deficit with Mexico ranked fourth, behind its deficits with Japan and Germany.
But trade is generally measured as a combination of both goods and services, and America tends to generate stronger numbers in the latter category. If Trump's team is only looking at the flow of goods, America's deficits look far starker, showing trade shortfalls with countries like Canada, Saudi Arabia and the U.K.
If services are factored in, the most recent data show the U.S. actually enjoyed surpluses with those three countries, among others.
"Let's remember to bring those services jobs back as well," Keith Leimbach, CEO of digital call-center company LiveOps told Trump on Thursday during an open portion of the meeting.
"Good, we will," Trump responded.
