Basics of NAFTA deal likely today, insiders say
Scheer says Canada still in ‘precarious position’ as fine print left for later date
TORONTO/WASHINGTON It seems likely the U.S. and Canada will announce a trade agreement in principle on Friday, even if the details of it will have to be hammered out later, two U.S. sources with knowledge of the talks said Thursday.
The countries only began negotiating in earnest on Wednesday, but have been working around the clock to try to meet a Friday deadline set by the White House for reaching a deal. In Washington, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said round-the-clock work by officials has armed negotiating teams with the documents they need to start making some concrete calls.
An announcement is expected “with high-level areas of agreement” that would allow U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to file notice to Congress, said one person briefed on the discussions.
Then the two sides would continue to negotiate, said the person, who asked not to be named to protect their relationship with White House officials.
If it happens, the agreement announced Friday would “probably (be) just enough to say ‘We are not walking away’.”
Another source also briefed on some aspects of the negotiations said any statement would deal with the “parameters of an agreement in principle,” leaving the fine print to be worked out later. “My impression is that there is good progress and I’m hopeful there is a deal, but it’s not done,” said the person late Thursday afternoon.
Asked if the talks were revolving around the key questions of American access to the Canadian dairy market and the U.S. demand to scrap a dispute-resolution section prized by Canada, the source said “the issues that people thought would be challenging are the last ones to be negotiated.”
Freeland has been in meetings this week with Lighthizer. Officials worked late into the night Wednesday and again all day to find areas of common ground and compromise.
The Americans are pushing to get a deal by Friday to allow Mexico’s outgoing president to sign it before he leaves office Dec. 1, while providing Congress the 90-day notice required before trade deals are signed. But there is another requirement that the full text of agreements be made public 60 days in advance, which many experts say could allow for Canada to keep negotiating well into next month.
With talks speeding up, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a conference call Thursday with premiers to discuss the negotiations. Freeland planned to be on the call, as did Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., David MacNaughton, and Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for intergovernmental affairs.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Thursday that the U.S.-Mexican deal has put Canada in a “very precarious position” with Trudeau on the outside looking in.”