Canada, Mexico talk free trade

Canada’s foreign affairs minister says a meeting with Mexico’s president-elect has cleared the haze about diving back into free trade talks between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and International Trade Minister Jim Carr with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador came one day before his representatives travel to the U.S. to talk to American trade negotiators and in the shadow of a simmering trade war with the Trump administration.

Freeland spoke in broad, largely positive terms about the meeting with the 64-year-old political veteran, but wouldn’t detail what he told Canadian officials. Freeland said she was “hopeful” NAFTA talks could hit high gear now that she gauged the policy pulse of Canada’s new political neighbour in North America.

“It was important to meet with the president-elect and with his team to understand their position so we really knew where Mexico was,” she said in a conference call from Mexico City.

“We have a clear understanding now and we certainly are very committed to moving forward as quickly as we can.”

Lopez Obrador and his top officials have said they back the North American Free Trade Agreement, emphasizing that talks about North American trade must involve all three countries – eschewing the idea of a one-onone deal with the Americans.

Lopez Obrador, who goes by the nickname AMLO, is “astute enough to recognize that Trump is playing a game and trying to divide and conquer his two NAFTA allies,” said Laura Macdonald, an expert on Mexican politics from Carleton University in Ottawa.

But, she cautioned, “we never know.” Carlo Dade, an expert on Latin American politics from the Canada West Foundation, said the uncertainty around trade pacts in North America as well as with Pacific Rim countries means Canadian politicians need to build up a personal relationship with Lopez Obrador, something which can often get overlooked.

“There’s an expression in Spanish: ‘hasta en la sopa’ – even in the soup. It’s when you keep running into someone every time you turn around and that, I think, could potentially be us and Mexico at the trade table.”

NAFTA negotiations were paused in late spring because of the July 1 Mexican presidential election that Lopez Obrador won with a majority of the popular vote.

He assumes office in December.