Canada on track to sign deal once details finalized: Freeland

Canada is on schedule to put pen to paper on its new trade pact with the United States and Mexico today, but there is still work to do on the fine print before that can happen, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged Thursday on the eve of a meeting of G20 leaders.

Freeland, speaking on a sunny patio at a hotel in Buenos Aires, said there are still details to be finalized before the three countries can formally sign the “massive” U.s.-mexico-canada Agreement.

“Our objective has always been to sign this agreement on Nov. 30 and we are on track to hit that objective,” Freeland said shortly after the Canadian delegation arrived in Argentina for the two-day summit.

Canada has been in touch with the Americans and the Mexicans since arriving in Buenos Aires, she added.

“A vast number of technical details need to be scrubbed and wrapped up,” Freeland said. “The fact that this is an agreement in three languages adds to the level of technical complexity and it is on that level that we are just being sure that all the Is are dotted and all the Ts are crossed.”

Today is an important deadline: Saturday, a new Mexican president takes over who could scramble the agreement.

Signing the deal is largely ceremonial; it still requires ratification by all three countries before it can formally take effect.

Lawmakers in the U.S. have already signalled they don’t expect to deal with the USMCA until after the new Congress is sworn in early next year.

But the path to today’s signing has been bruising, and those sore spots will be impossible to ignore when the three countries gather to talk trade for the first time since 13 months of talks culminated in an 11thhour agreement late in September.