By BLOOMBERG

WASHINGTON • US President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” breaking up joint talks with Canada and Mexico to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) in favour of parallel, bilateral negotiations, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow (picture) said.

“His preference now, he asked me to convey this, is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately,” Kudlow said yesterday during an interview on Fox News. “I know this is just three countries but still, you know, oftentimes when you have to compromise with a whole bunch of countries you get the worst of the deals.”

Talks to revamp the Nafta — a 1994 accord between the three countries that trade US$1 trillion (RM4 trillion) in goods annually — began in August, punctuated by Trump’s regular threats to withdraw altogether and stated preference for bilateral deals. Canada and Mexico insist Nafta is trilateral and should stay that way.

Trump floated the idea of pursuing bilateral pacts with the Nafta partners when answering questions from reporters last Friday.

Negotiators have reached agreement on about nine of 30 chapters for an updated Nafta, and the US had been pushing to get a deal passed in this Congress, which would require an agreement around now. A key Republican senator, John Cornyn said on Monday that window is now closed and talks are expected to proceed more slowly going forward.

Any of the three countries can quit Nafta on six months’ notice.