Deal may include Canade
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration told Congress on Friday it intends to enter into a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and will continue working to keep Canada in the pact as talks between the United States and Canada move into next week.
While sticking points still remain between the United States and Canada, the decision to try to keep a trilateral deal is a significant win for NAFTA supporters and an indication the Trump administration, despite its threats to leave its northern neighbor behind, wants to keep Canada in the pact.
“Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now,” Robert E. Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement. Lighthizer called the ongoing talks with Canada “constructive” and said, “Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement.”
The decision to try to reach an agreement capped off a rocky negotiating session Friday, as the
United States and Canada struggled to reach agreement on several key issues and President Donald Trump continued to disparage Canada and its trade practices, raising fears that the lastditch talks to salvage the pact could falter.
The Trump administration had set a Friday deadline to strike a deal with Canada, threatening to move ahead with a bilateral trade pact with just Mexico if an agreement between the three countries could not be reached. After several days of marathon meetings that seemed to presage a deal, the chances of such an agreement by the end of Friday began looking doubtful.
The United States and Canada have agreed to negotiate beyond the Friday deadline. While members of Congress could theoretically object, they are unlikely to do so, since most are eager for Canada to remain part of the pact.
On Friday, talks between the United States and Canada remained deadlocked over several contentious issues, including Canada’s dairy sector, its rules governing movies, books and other media, and a mechanism for settling trade disputes between the two countries, people briefed on the talks said.
On Friday morning, the U.S. trade representative put out a statement saying that Canada had yet to make any concessions on dairy products, which has become a source of ire for Trump.
“The negotiations between the United States and Canada are ongoing,” a spokeswoman for the U.S. trade representative said in a statement. “There have been no concessions by Canada on agriculture.”
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, said repeatedly this week that Canada and the United States had agreed
“Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now.” – ROBERT E. LIGHTHIZER, REPRESENTS TRADE FOR U.S.
not to discuss the details of the talks in public while negotiations were taking place.
Arriving for a meeting with Lighthizer on Friday morning, Freeland said she was looking forward to hearing what he had to say after a night of reflection. But after a meeting lasted more than an hour, it appeared that the two sides were no closer to a deal.
“We are not there yet,” Freeland told reporters outside of the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “Canada is a country that is good at finding win-win compromises — having said that, in trade negotiations, in this negotiation, we always stand up for the national interest and that is what we’re going to continue to do.”
She added: “We’re looking for a good deal, not just any deal.”
The talks were further complicated by a report in the Toronto Star on Friday that quoted offthe-record comments Trump gave during an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News. According to that report, Trump said he had no plans to make concessions to Canada and that any agreement would be “totally on our terms.”
Trump responded in a tweet Friday, saying his agreement to speak off the record was “blatantly violated.” “Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!” he added.
Freeland said she did believe that Lighthizer was looking for a winwin agreement, but she took a long pause before answering when asked if the United States was
“If it doesn’t happen, then we’ll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that’ll be even better,” Trump said. “But I think it’s going to happen, and we’ve really developed a very good relationship.”
negotiating in good faith.
At a rally in Indiana on Thursday night, Trump expressed his frustration with Canada and its dairy protections. The president accused Canada of not treating the United States fairly and said that if negotiations failed, he would punish Canada with car tariffs.
“If it doesn’t happen, then we’ll put tariffs on the cars coming in from Canada, and that’ll be even better,” Trump said. “But I think it’s going to happen, and we’ve really developed a very good relationship.”
As he met with a group of supporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump again groused about the trade balance between the United States and Canada.
“They’ve taken advantage of our country for many years,” Trump said. “They have tremendous trade barriers, and they have tremendous tariffs. Dairy products are almost 300 percent tariffs. Nobody talks about that.”
Negotiators have been working around the clock to hammer out their final areas of disagreement but talks have bogged down over several areas of disagreement.
Canada has insisted on protections for its publishing and broadcasting industries over concerns these businesses would be overwhelmed by the much larger U.S. market. It has also resisted Trump’s requests to reform its dairy industry. Unlike the United States, which directly subsidizes farmers, Canada uses a supply management system to regulate the volume of imports and keep prices stable for its farmers.
Canada has allowed foreign countries more access to its dairy market in past trade agreements, and agricultural experts said negotiators were prepared to make similar offers in the current NAFTA negotiations. However, those offers have fallen short of the broad access and substantial reforms the Trump administration has called for.
Successfully renegotiating NAFTA would be a significant accomplishment for Trump, who has criticized the 25-year-old pact since its inception and promised to remake it on the campaign trail.
Yet the economic effects of the agreement that was reached with Mexico this week remain unclear. Trade experts who have analyzed the preliminary details have suggested the proposals would do little to accomplish the bold claims Trump has made about how reforming NAFTA would help the economy, including greatly expanding U.S. manufacturing jobs or cutting the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico.
The new regulations requiring carmakers to use more domestic content and pay higher wages will most likely raise prices for consumers and could create new opportunities for automobile manufacturers in Europe and Asia to have a competitive advantage in the United States.
– PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP