CASH COW NAFTA IS IN PLAY, AS IS FOREIGN AID TO HONDURAS.

travel to Washington for meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday, the people said. Some meetings could also include U.S. presidential adviser Jared Kushner and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who have been managing the relationship between Trump and his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, according to two of the people. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will arrive Thursday for her own meetings with Lighthizer, and meetings on Friday may include all three countries, the people said.

NAFTA negotiators are working under some political calendar pressure, with elections in Mexico in July and the U.S. in November threatening to complicate the process of reaching a deal and getting it approved by the nations’ lawmakers. Guajardo said last month that negotiations between the countries would need to be concluded before the end of April in order for the agreement to go before the current Mexican Senate and U.S. Congress.

The NAFTA process could become trickier if Democrats take control in the U.S. House or Senate, or if leftist Mexican presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wins or his Morena party picks up seats in the nation’s upper house. Those events probably would change the political calculus for a deal and the content required in a final agreement to win legislative approval. Mexico’s new Senate will be seated in September, with the new president taking office in December. Pena Nieto is limited to a single six-year term.

Negotiators from Mexico and Canada have been expecting an eighth round of NAFTA talks to start in Washington next week, though Lighthizer has pushed back against the idea and hasn’t yet sent an official invitation, according to the people. He says the three can make the most progress by holding regularly scheduled meetings between smaller groups of negotiators, they said.

“Canada is committed to concluding a modern, mutually beneficial NAFTA as soon as possible,” said Adam Austen, a spokesman for Freeland, while declining to comment on her schedule. Press offices of the Mexican Economy Ministry, Foreign Ministry and USTR declined to comment.

Negotiators this week will try to advance on contentious issues, including automotive rules, investment dispute settlement and procurement, while also attempting to finish work on less sensitive topics where there’s more consensus, such as telecommunications, digital trade and energy, the people said. Trump has promised to negotiate a better deal for America or withdraw.