WASHINGTON Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that a commitment to do no harm would guide efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and that elements of the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership would serve as a starting point in talks with Canada and Mexico.

The remarks on Wednesday at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which supports international trade agreements, struck a marked contrast with President Donald Trump s nationalist bromides on trade. The comments will undoubtedly allay the fears of big-business interests that support NAFTA, some of which were well-represented in the room.

But Ross pronouncements are also liable to vindicate the fears of liberal trade skeptics already worried that the Trump administration s version of revising NAFTA will amount to simply expanding NAFTAs reach to new sectors of the economy. That runs counter to their wishes for measures more likely to save the jobs of less-educated workers, whether in manufacturing plants or call centers.

The Trump administrations first objective will be to do no harm, because there were some things that were achieved under NAFTA and under other trade agreements, Ross told Jason Grumet, founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center, which receives foundation, corporate and individual funding.

Grumet subsequently told Ross that a lot of people in this room and others are really comforted by that assurance.

Indeed, two business leaders who support NAFTA Chip Bowling, chairman of the Corn Board of the National Corn Growers Association, and Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry trade group were in the room.

Grumet had interviewed them just before Ross arrival, allowing them to deliver a swan song to the much-maligned trade deal. Bowling hammered home just how important NAFTA was in opening up export markets for U.S. farmers, while Gerard waxed lyrical about the efficient supply chains NAFTA has made available for U.S. oil and gas producers and refiners.

Both men suggested that the changes theyd most favor would involve streamlining NAFTA to further integrate the United States economy with those of Canada and Mexico.

It works very well for us right now. You can always strengthen an agreement, Bowling said.

Here, too, Ross seemed to suggest that the administration is open to a strategy that might please some in the business community who benefit from NAFTA.

Ross said that bringing NAFTA up to speed with TPP, which would have created intellectual property protections and removed barriers to digital trade, would be the first order of business. Mexico and Canada had signed on to TPP, a 12-nation Pacific Rim trade agreement, before Trump shelved it in his first days in office, after campaigning against both NAFTA and TPP. But many business leaders wanted those two TPP provisions, so now they could get their way with a repaired NAFTA.

According to Ross, there were a number of concessions to NAFTA countries made in connection with the TPP. And so we would view those as a starting point for discussion.

Its an old agreement. It didnt address digital economy. It didnt address much in the way of services, especially didnt address much in the way of financial services. So there are some big holes in it.