NAFTA talks enter intensified phase
Negotiators aim to reach updated trade agreement in the next few weeks
Senior trade officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico will meet again in Washington in an intensified push to reach a NAFTA agreement in the next few weeks.
Talks will pick up on Tuesday, after Cabinet-level members vowed on Friday to keep up the momentum following consultations with their technical teams over the weekend.
Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo said last week that after seven rounds of talks in as many months, rotating between the three countries, the three sides have en- tered a concentrated phase where “my negotiating team is practically living in Washington.”
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s minister for foreign affairs, said Friday that North American Free Trade Agreement negotiators have been making good progress on updated rules for cars, which she said will be at the heart of any eventual updated NAFTA.
“We have had some very energetic and productive conversations,” Freeland told reporters on the steps of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office following meetings with her counterparts.
“We are certainly in a more intense period of negotiations, and we are making good progress.”
This week’s talks are set to be the broadest and biggest since the final official negotiating round in Mexico City in early March, according to a preliminary agenda obtained by Bloomberg. Topics include automotive rules, agriculture, and legal and institutional matters such as dispute settlement mechanisms.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto travelled to Germany over the weekend to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Hannover Messe, a huge industry show where Mexico is the chosen partner country this year. Deepening ties with the EU is part of Mexico’s push to diversify beyond the U.S., the destination for 72 per cent of the nation’s $435 billion (U.S.) in exports last year. Pena Nieto said he’s optimistic he’ll have good news to announce from the NAFTA talks. U.S. President Donald Trump’s negotiators, led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, have been pushing for a deal by early May. That would meet U.S. timelines for having an agreement approved, at the latest, by the lame-duck session that will follow mid- term congressional elections in November, said two people familiar with the negotiations. Guajardo this month said he sees an 80-per-cent chance of an agreement by the first week of May.