Panetta: Withdrawing from NAFTA ‘Dangerous’ for Our Economy

Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” former CIA Director and former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta discussed the White House considering an executive order announcing the intent to withdraw from North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and called it “dangerous, particularly for our economy.”

Panetta said, “I think the administration is really struggling to try to figure out what exactly their trade policy is. I know what the president said during the campaign about withdrawing from these trade agreements. I think we recognize that is dangerous, particularly for our economy, that we would do that.”

“I thought that they recognized the importance of NAFTA and the need to try to obviously strengthen some elements of NAFTA, but you can’t just get rid of NAFTA,” he continued. “You can’t just walk away from trade agreements and maintain a strong economy. It’s that simple. We are part of a global world. We got to trade in a global world. If we don’t do that — you know he can provide tax cuts he can do all kinds of other issues but our economy will be damaged if we don’t stand by the proposition that we need to be part of the trade effort in the world.”

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