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“We have not been asked to look at the (NAFTA) issue,” said an official there.

It’s the same at the White House. Donald Trump’s trade czar, Robert Lighthizer, says he hasn’t yet done the research. In an exchange with U.S. reporters this week, he said his current focus is trying to get a deal, not study life without NAFTA.

The countries have pushed the negotiation schedule into next year, shelving talk of a quick easy agreement.

“You always think about what might happen, but we haven’t done any analysis of that at this point,” Lighthizer was quoted saying by Inside U.S. Trade. “No, we don’t really have a plan beyond trying to get a good agreement…

“(But) if we end up not having an agreement, my guess is all three countries will do just fine.”

Some Washington trade-watchers find that stunning.

Duncan Wood, a Mexico expert, said the U.S. is certainly acting like it wants to leave the pact, putting forward proposals the other countries could never accept. Wood said he fears the Trump administration is inching toward a pullout — without doing its homework.

“That doesn’t make me feel very good when I go to bed at night,” he told panel this week at the Washington International Trade Association.

“If they were taking these decisions based upon years and years of studies and saying, ‘You know what, we think we’ll be absolutely fine, because the stats show it,’ I could say, ‘Okay, fine, I get it, I may disagree, because I like Mexico, but for the United States, I get it’…