President Donald Trump distorted some facts about trade in a press conference announcing an agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
FactChecking Trump on Trade
Locations: International
Trump Wrong on Mexico’s VAT
President Donald Trump wrongly said that “nobody from this country knew” about Mexico’s value-added tax until after NAFTA was signed. A deputy U.S. trade representative at the time NAFTA was put in place said: “US policymakers, embassy officials and tax authorities were fully aware of Mexico’s VAT system.”
Viral Meme Makes Up Ocasio-Cortez Quote
Q: Did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say “we’ll never have to worry about China attacking us” because of the country’s time difference?
A: No. There is no evidence she made the statement used in a viral meme.
Facts on Trade
Here we highlight a number of key statistics about trade, and summarize some of the stories we have written when these facts have been misrepresented.
U.S. Trade with Canada Not ‘Smaller’ Than With Mexico
In announcing a tentative agreement with Mexico, President Donald Trump called Mexico “a very large trading partner” and said negotiations would now begin with Canada, which he called a “smaller segment.” But U.S. trade with Canada was about $57 billion larger than trade with Mexico in 2017.
U.S. Not Ranked the ‘Cleanest’ Country
President Donald Trump recently said “we’ve got the cleanest country in the planet right now” when it comes to “clean air” and “clean water.” Rankings compiled by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities say otherwise.
Giuliani Misleads on Trump Tower Meeting
Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed that when Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials agreed to meet Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in June 2016 “they didn’t know she was a representative of the Russian government.”
Video: FactChecking Trump’s Farming Claims
In this fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper reviews President Donald Trump’s false claims about the impact of trade on U.S. farmers.
Trump’s Mixed Messages on Russian Meddling
President Donald Trump thanked Fox News for airing a montage on July 19 that he said showed “Trump recognized Russian Meddling MANY TIMES.” But the video also shows Trump equivocating on the issue.
Video: Trump on DNC Server
In this week’s fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper reviews a statement that President Donald Trump made about the FBI investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.