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  February 27th, 2017 | Written by

WATCH Trump’s Over-the-Top Attack on NAFTA

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  • Trump called NAFTA “economy un-development.”
  • Trump took credit for jobs creation at major US companies.
  • NAFTA has increased US manufacturing exports to Canada and Mexico.

President Donald Trump took to the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday, electrifying a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. Repeating some of the rhetoric has has engaged in before, the president called NAFTA “economy un-development” and took credit for the creation of jobs at major US companies.

“Take a look at NAFTA,” the president said, “one of the worst deals ever made by any country, having to do with economic development. It’s economy un-development, as far as our country is concerned.”

According to the Congressional Research Service the “net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP.” A couple of things we do know about NAFTA: it’s increased US manufacturing exports to Canada and Mexico and has created a highly competitive and integrated motor vehicle supply chain among the three countries.

Trump also repeated his claim that Ford, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, Intel, and others are “making major investments in the United States” because of the election result. Here, he’s taking credit for business decisions made before he became president and which arguably should go to the credit of former President Obama.

Ford executives are on record saying the reason the company abandoned plans to open a factory in Mexico was because demand has gone down for small cars.

The latest jobs numbers, from January, showed 230,000 jobs were created during the last month of the Obama administration.