Former president of Mexico warns of US trade policy

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A former president of Mexico warned of the possible consequences of U.S. trade policy during a lecture at Brown University in Rhode Island.

The Providence Journal reports that Ernesto Zedillo said Monday a trade war with China could reach “epic proportions, with irreversible damage.”

He also criticized the attempts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying the new provisions of the latter were “damaging to American interests.”

Zedillo was president of Mexico from 1994 until 2000. He currently directs the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

Zedillo says the world can overcome economic disasters caused by a trade rivalry between the U.S. and China, but the pain would be greater if the rivalry leads to “bellicose confrontation.”

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Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.providencejournal.com