Early NAFTA bumps for U.S. lawmakers

• Top U.S. lawmakers tasked with an oversight role in the NAFTA negotiations are expressing confidence in the state of the discussions, playing down talk of a halting start to the process.

The two highest-ranking members of the U.S. Senate finance committee legally designated with monitoring the negotiations have brushed aside reports of early bumps. The Republican chairman of the committee said Tuesday he still thinks a new NAFTA is achievable this year.

“I think we’re gonna get that done,” said Orrin Hatch.

“I don’t know when. But I think we’ll get it done — certainly before we finish this year.”

The countries have set a target for reaching a deal by the end of the year, before Mexico and then the U.S. become embroiled in national elections. That creates a sense of urgency — the countries are trying to cram more than a half-dozen negotiating rounds into a few months.

There was some early turbulence in the first two rounds, according to some sources. One suggested the countries declined to even discuss some issues the others considered key. And one outsider briefed on the talks says the U.S. arrived with text copied from the now-dormant Trans-Pacific Partnership and assumed — incorrectly — that the other countries might simply rubber-stamp it.

The top Democrat on the committee chalked it up to early negotiating games.

“It strikes me as the sparring still (being) in the early stages,” said Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. The softwood lumber hardliner, however, cautioned that he would oppose an agreement if it includes some kind of softwood settlement that hurts his state’s industry.

The Canadian government was discussing NAFTA at a cabinet retreat in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland would not say whether U.S. negotiators have threatened to withdraw from the talks, as the president has. But she said: “The tone ... has been extremely cordial.”

She even joked the countries might start their own book club. She said the lead ministers for Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have taken to discussing their favourite books at the negotiating rounds: “It’s a very friendly environment.”

Any deal would eventually require a vote in the respective national legislatures. And, in the U.S., lawmakers are formally involved from start to finish.

U.S. law requires trade officials negotiating the deal to regularly brief and share documents with key committee members in Congress — which has constitutional power over international commerce.

After two negotiating rounds, officials say they have tabled about two dozen texts on a variety of issues — although they have yet to enter the more sensitive areas. Those more difficult discussions will start coming up in the next rounds.

The next round will be in Ottawa later this month. The talks will then return to the U.S., then travel to Mexico.