BEDMINSTER, N.J. �� The U.S. now making "absolutely amazing'' progress toward renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and a deal could come as soon as this fall, said Kevin Hassert, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
While cautioning that he was not a negotiator' involved in the talks between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, Hassett said his colleagues who are renegotiating the deal have indicated that things are going well.
"It's absolutely amazing the progress that they're making,'' he said in an interview on Fox News.
Hassett's upbeat comment echoed one by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who said Thursday in congressional testimony that it's possible the NAFTA partners will reach a tentative agreement in August to revise the agreement.
President Donald Trump also said recently that the U.S. is making solid progress in talks with Mexico, but has indicated that his administration may pursue a bilateral deal with that country first before negotiating separately with Canada.
Such a move would upend the decades-old trilateral NAFTA deal and likely stretch out negotiations far longer. Mexico's incoming president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has said he wants to keep the trilateral structure of NAFTA in place.
The current Mexican administration, Canada and the U.S. Congress have said they support the final agreement having a trilateral structure.
Some Republican members of Congress have urged Trump to make a deal quickly and pull back from a trade war that's hurt their constituents.
"Let's get it done before September," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Saturday on Fox. "NAFTA's been good for Tennessee."
