Mexican president-elect's team hails new trade deal with US

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's advisers today hailed a new trade deal with the United States, saying it represented progress on energy and wages for Mexico's workers.

"We see the agreement announced today as a positive step, because it reduces the uncertainty about our economy and also takes into account the concerns raised by the president-elect's team," said future foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard.

Lopez Obrador is a leftist free-trade skeptic, and his landslide victory in Mexico's July 1 elections had raised doubts about the future of the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

However, his transition team has been taking part in the talks, and gave their blessing to the two-way deal announced between Washington and Mexico City.

Ebrard said the preliminary deal -- which will now be presented to Canada, the third member of NAFTA -- represented progress "especially related to the Mexican energy sector, labor conditions and wages for our workers."
In announcing the deal, Trump suggested he might cut Ottawa out of the agreement reached with Mexico and added that he wanted to change the name of the North American Free Trade Agreement because it has "bad connotations."