Lead ministers will be no-shows for this round of NAFTA talks

WASHINGTON — Call it the calm between two storms. NAFTA negotiators are gathering in Mexico City this week for what’s expected to be a transition round, nestled between the tumult of early talks and the deluge of drama expected next year in latephase negotiations.

Things will be kept quieter by the absence of politicians.

The lead ministers for Canada, the U.S. and Mexico announced Wednesday that they won’t attend the session that concludes Nov. 21, the first time Chrystia Freeland, Robert Lighthizer and Ildefonso Guajardo have not shown up in five negotiating rounds.

All three played down the need to get together this time, citing substantive discussions at the Asia-Pacific summit, and will remain in constant communication with their chief negotiators anyway.

But their non-presence illustrates something else: a view inside and outside government that this mid-negotiation round is expected to be a calmer exercise than what preceded, and what will likely follow.

The previous round concluded with the ministers practically squabbling on stage. The U.S. shocked its partners with a barrage of aggressive demands, and the politicians wound up at the closing news conference delivering thinly veiled lectures at each other.

It won’t happen this time — at least not publicly. The teams gathering in a tony enclave of Mexico City will include bureaucrats, professional negotiators and some political staff, but there will be no big news conferences with politicians.

One official familiar with the talks said he expects countries will put off the most painful trade-offs, while looking to negotiate the easier outstanding issues, on things like digital trade and regulatory co-operation.