Washington — US President Donald Trump’s top trade negotiator came out of the gate sounding like he wants to fine-tune the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), not blow it up as some feared. During the election campaign, Trump called the trade deal with Mexico and Canada a "disaster" that cost millions of US jobs and hollowed out the manufacturing sector. A few weeks ago, he was weighing whether to pull out of the deal entirely. But his new trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, struck a more dovish tone on Thursday in serving notice to Congress of the administration’s intention to renegotiate the accord. Lighthizer noted the deal has been a success for some US industries, such as agriculture, investment services and energy. The veteran trade lawyer said the US would prefer to keep the three-way structure, a notable comment from an administration that has denounced multilateral deals as unwieldy. Meanwhile, the letter he sent to lawmakers to kickstart consultations omitted...
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