WASHINGTON—The White House is considering a draft executive order to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday.
It was unclear whether the order would be enacted by President Donald Trump, who has vowed to pull out from NAFTA—a U.S., Mexico and Canada trade pact—if he cannot win better terms for America.
But the action under consideration could signal heightened prospects that one of the world’s biggest trading blocs could unravel in an economically damaging dispute.
The possible executive order, first reported by Politico, sent stocks and currencies falling in Mexico and Canada. Investors were rethinking their assumptions that Trump would back away from some of the drastic actions on trade that he had promised during the presidential campaign.
“It is a clear indication that they (in the White House) are wanting changes but we will have to see what emerges,” said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
