Reuters
Britain’s foreign secretary has a message for President Donald Trump: Don’t scuttle the Iran nuclear deal.
“Of all the options we have for ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, this pact offers the fewest disadvantages,” Boris Johnson writes in a New York Times op-ed. Johnson has meetings scheduled in Washington with Trump administration officials ahead of President Trump’s May 12 deadline for deciding whether to keep the U.S. in the deal.
“At this delicate juncture, it would be a mistake to walk away from the nuclear agreement and remove the restraints that it places on Iran,” Johnson writes.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that abandoning the nuclear deal would be a “historic mistake,” CNN reported. “When it comes to weapons and defending our country, we will not negotiate with anybody,” he said in a speech.
‘PR stunt’ spending-cut proposal: With the White House set to send what’s known as a rescission package to Capitol Hill this week, budget expert Stan Collender says the effort to cut $11 billion from the federal budget “will be more of a PR stunt than a serious policy plan.”
Writing in Forbes, Collender says even if the plan were completely enacted and implemented, the spending reductions would be less than 0.3% of the total federal budget. “Does the phrase ‘rounding error’ come to mind?” asks Collender.
Nafta talks in DC this week: Negotiators from the U.S., Canada and Mexico will meet again in Washington this week to attempt a breakthrough on the North American Free Trade Agreement, Bloomberg reports. Talks begin Monday and could run as long as Wednesday, Bloomberg said, citing a Canadian official. Automobiles is one topic that could loom large. The U.S. has pushed for tightening so-called rules of origin, which govern how much regional content a car must have to enjoy duty-free benefits.