US, Mexico, Canada ministers to sign trade pact on November 30

MEXICO CITY: Cabinet ministers from the United States, Mexico and Canada will sign a new trade agreement on November 30, Mexico’s economy minister said.

The deal will be signed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters at an event in Mexico City. Argentina is hosting the G20 international forum for governments and central bank governors.

It was yet to be determined whether the presidents and prime minister will participate in the signing, Guajardo said.

“What’s clear is that the signing will take place on November 30,” Guajardo said.

After more than a year of negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, the United States and Canada reached a last-gasp deal in September. Mexico and the United States had already struck a bilateral agreement.

Legislators from the three countries still have to approve the pact, officially known as the United States-mexico-canada Agreement (USMCA), before it goes into effect. CANADA AT ODDS WITH US CHANGES

TO TEXT OF TRADE DEAL Meanwhile, Canada is pushing back against US attempts to change the text of their September trade pact and the issue may have to be referred to ministers to settle, a Canadian source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

“Some of the stuff they (the Americans) have been putting forward is not at all what we agreed to,” said the source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

Although the source said Ottawa did not feel the problem would wreck the new Us-mexico-canada (USMCA) deal, the affair shows that tensions remain after a stressful 13-month negotiation.

The United States and Canada reached a lastgasp deal on USMCA at the end of September, guaranteeing that free trade between the three nations would continue. Officials are now fine-tuning the wording on the deal intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“We are having discussions around the interpretation of a variety of things,” said the Canadian source.

Legislators from the three countries still have to approve the pact, officially known as the United States-mexicocanada Agreement (USMCA), before it goes into effect

— Reuters The flags of Canada, Mexico and the US are seen on a lectern before a joint news conference on the closing of the seventh round of NAFTA talks in Mexico City, Mexico on March 5, 2018.