Nafta lives to fight another day
washington/ottawa/mexico city — President Donald Trump said he plans to pursue a trade deal with Mexico and possibly Canada even as talks with the US’ northern neighbour stalled just hours before a deadline, leaving the future of a revised North American Free Trade Agreement in continuing doubt.
The move by Trump to notify Congress that he planned to sign a deal with Mexico in 90 days and would include Canada “if it is willing” avoided what many in the US business community and Congress had seen as a worst-case scenario.
The president threatened earlier this week to go ahead with a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico that would leave out Canada, which he on Friday again accused of “ripping us off ”.
“We can’t have these countries taking advantage of the United States,” he told supporters in North Carolina.
While the two sides failed to meet a deadline set by the White House, both US and Canadian negotiators insisted that they were making progress. They also announced that they would resume talks on Wednesday after four days of intense negotiations in Washington ended without a final agreement.
Sending the notification to Congress effectively sets a new clock for the Nafta negotiations. Under rules set by Congress, the administration is now facing a 30-day deadline to provide a full text of the agreement.
Because of that, negotiations could still drag on for not just days but weeks. But both the United States and Canada are facing their own pressures.
US business groups welcomed the signs of progress but made clear that they would oppose any deal that did not include Canada.
“Anything other than a trilateral agreement won’t win Congressional approval and would lose business support,” the US Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.
Trump’s continuing vitriol toward Canada has complicated the
politics for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who on Friday said he’ll only sign an agreement that’s right for his country.
Trudeau reiterated his government wouldn’t concede to US demands to dismantle its dairy system, known as supply management. Talks were also hung up on US insistence to eliminate dispute-resolution panels that Ottawa considers essential, two Canadian officials said on Friday. —