Senator urges Obama not to alter NAFTA farm terms

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President Barack Obama should make clear that he will not change agricultural provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement if he renegotiates the pact as promised, a top Republican senator said on Thursday.

"I am concerned that if the trade agreement is reopened, Mexico will seek to rebalance tariff concessions in a way that will adversely affect agricultural exports from Iowa," Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said in a letter to Obama.

"I question how this agreement could be changed without having an adverse effect on trade," Grassley said.

During last year's election campaign, Obama frequently criticized the 15-year-old trade pact. He promised to "fix" the agreement by putting enforceable labor and environmental protections in the core text of the pact.

Obama also said he wanted to amend NAFTA investment provisions that critics said gave businesses too much power to challenge domestic regulations in the three countries.

Grassley, noting Obama threatened last year to withdraw from NAFTA if Mexico and Canada did not agree to reopen it, pressed the president to provide more details about the scope of a possible renegotiation.

"I also ask you to confirm that, if this trade agreement is reopened, you will not agree to any increases in, or reinstatements of, tariffs on U.S. agricultural products under this trade agreement," Grassley said.

A White House official said they were reviewing Grassley's letter.

Grassley will have an opportunity to question Obama's nominee to be U.S. trade representative, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, about the issue on Monday, when the Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on Kirk's nomination.

During a trip to Ottawa last month, Obama repeated his desire to put enforceable labor and environmental provisions in the text of NAFTA, instead of leaving them in side agreements.

"My hope is ... there's a way of doing this that is not disruptive to the extraordinarily important trade relationship that exists between the United States and Canada," Obama said.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office, in its annual trade agenda report released on Monday, said it would "work with Canada and Mexico to identify ways in which NAFTA could be improved without having an adverse effect on trade."

Grassley said NAFTA leveled the playing field for U.S. farmers and other exporters by reducing Mexican tariffs and creating significant new market openings.