US, Canada enter crucial phase after months of intense NAFTA talks
US and Canadian trade officials were set to begin a crucial phase of talks on Wednesday to see if they can bridge their differences to sign a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement.
After Mexico paved the way by agreeing to NAFTA 2.0 with the United States, Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was upbeat about the potential for progress.
But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made it clear that he would only sign a new trade pact he considers good for his country.
The sticking points between Ottawa and Washington will likely center on
Canada’s managed dairy market and how to handle some disputes among NAFTA partners.
After months of intense talks, the United States and Mexico announced an agreement Monday to thoroughly overhaul the 25-year-old free trade pact.
But President Donald Trump suggested he could leave Canada out and press ahead with a two-party deal with Mexico.
However, Trudeau as well as Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto and President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said NAFTA should remain a trilateral deal.
Following her first brief meeting with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday evening, Freeland said Mexico’s willingness to make “tough decisions” on labor rights and auto requirements helped pave the way for a new regional agreement.
Negotiators have worked for a year to update and rewrite NAFTA.
But in the last five weeks, Washington and Mexico City held talks to resolve their bilateral issues, especially on the auto industry rules, without Ottawa.
While critics said Canada had been frozen out, Freeland said she has been in close touch with her US and Mexican
counterparts throughout the summer, and had already achieved “a high level agreement with the US” on labor issues.
Mexico’s efforts to reach an accord with Washington “definitely clears the way for us to have some significant, substantive, and, I think, productive conversations with the US this week,” Freeland told reporters.