Trump threat hovers over NAFTA as Ottawa talks a wrap

OTTAWA (CP) — The third round of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement wrapped Wednesday with the spectre of a U.S. withdrawal by President Donald Trump looming ever larger, thanks to slow progress on major issues.

The languid pace of the talks is being widely blamed on the lack of concrete proposals being brought by the U.S. — fuelled by internal U.S. divisions — but there is also grumbling about a lacklustre showing by some Canadian negotiators.

That is stoking broader fears that an impatient Trump could trigger NAFTA’s withdrawal clause if he doesn’t see a win for the U.S. by the end of the year.

The lead ministers for Canada, Mexico and the United States congratulated themselves for modest progress in signing off on one chapter on small and medium-sized businesses. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said they expect to complete the competition chapter prior to the next round of talks two weeks from now in Washington.

No substantive progress was made on the investor state dispute settlement process; opening up Canada’s supply-managed dairy and poultry industry; or the U.S. demand for greater American content in automobiles manufactured in North America.

Nonetheless, Freeland was doing her best Wednesday to sound a positive note, calling the progress “astonishing.”

“Really significant, speedy progress has been made on a number of fronts,” she told a news conference.

“On some of the hardest issues, proposals have not been tabled, so we haven’t gotten to those. That is standard practice in a trade agreement.”