Delay Would Kill NAFTA, Salinas Warns
President Carlos Salinas de Gortari said Thursday that the North American Free Trade Agreement must be in place as scheduled on Jan. 1 and that any attempt to renegotiate or postpone a U.S. ratification vote would effectively kill the accord.
Seeking to stanch any movement in Washington to delay a congressional vote on the accord, Salinas said in a statement given to the Washington Post that he wants an all-or-nothing response from Congress by the end of the year.
Salinas did not explicitly say he would act unilaterally to cancel the accord but rather would regard the Jan. 1 start-up date as inalterable.
The statement signaled Salinas’ growing exasperation with Washington politics surrounding the free-trade debate. It was difficult to gauge whether Salinas was merely maneuvering politically, one diplomat said, or issuing an ultimatum.
Salinas’ insistence on finishing the agreement by Jan. 1 could torpedo an alternative strategy some NAFTA supporters are considering in case the agreement does not come to a vote in the current session of Congress.
In that event, the Administration’s fall-back plan is to push for a vote in early January that would be retroactive to the first of the year.
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