[PJ] WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned that President Trump could end up hurting Americans in the wallet with a looming trade war with Mexico.At the Republicans' congressional retreat in Philadelphia on Thursday, Trump told lawmakers that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) "has been a terrible deal, a total disaster for the United States from its inception, costing us as much as $60 billion a year with Mexico alone in trade deficits."
"You say, who negotiates these deals? Not to mention, millions of jobs and thousands and thousands of factories and plants closing down all over our country," Trump said. "I will not allow the taxpayers or the citizens of the United States to pay the costs of this defective transaction, NAFTA, one that should have been renegotiated many years ago except the politicians were too preoccupied to do so."
McCain said in a statement that "while renegotiations could help to strengthen and modernize NAFTA to benefit American businesses and consumers, any effort to restrict or impose new barriers on our ability to trade with Mexico and Canada could jeopardize the future of this trade agreement and have serious consequences for Arizona and the country."
"Facts are stubborn things, and the facts clearly show that NAFTA has delivered enormous economic benefits to the citizens of my home state since it went into effect in 1994," the senator said, adding that "in just two decades, Arizona’s exports to Canada and Mexico have increased by $5.7 billion, or 236 percent."
He noted that international trade supports more than 20 percent of jobs in his home state, "which pay roughly 18 percent higher salaries."