WASHINGTON — President Trump has called the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal a “rape” of the United States. He has scolded Germany for being “very bad” on trade because it runs a surplus. And in April he said that he was “psyched” to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, only to reverse course.
Despite Mr. Trump’s incendiary talk, his top trade advisers are taking a more cautious approach to dealing with America’s trading partners, striking a more moderate tone than the president but still laying the groundwork for the changes he has promised.
That more moderate tone has come as a relief to those who feared the Trump administration would swiftly usher in a wave of protectionism, while disappointing some people who hoped that a sweeping rewrite of trade deals would come in the administration’s early days.
Signs of greater moderation were on display this week when Wilbur Ross, the secretary of commerce, suggested that the administration would actually try to build off some aspects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, or T.P.P., that Mr. Trump abandoned in January as Nafta renegotiations begin this summer.
Mr. Ross also said that America’s trade deficit with Canada was “blameless” because it was the result of energy needs, rather than misdeeds. And he dismissed the idea that Mr. Trump was really ready to pull out of Nafta.
