U.S., Canada pull all-nighters in talks about NAFTA revamp

WASHINGTON » U.S. and Canadian negotiators — facing a deadline at the end of the month — are working long hours to keep Canada in a North American trade bloc.

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland resumed talks Wednesday with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer.

“Our negotiators have been really hard at it, including an all-night session last night that ended at 7 a.m.,” Freeland told reporters.

President Donald Trump began negotiations last year to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

The U.S. and Mexico reached a preliminary deal last month designed in part to shift more auto production to the United States. But Canada wasn’t part of that agreement. Freeland is trying to get America’s No. 2 trading partner back into the trade bloc.

The countries are under pressure to reach a deal by the end of the month when Lighthizer must make public a copy of the full text of the agreement with Mexico. Until then, he has wriggle room to reinstate Canada.

Among other things, the negotiators are battling over Canada’s high dairy tariffs and policies meant to keep the country’s

ALEX BRANDON — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks as she arrives at the Office of the United States Trade Representative on Wednesday in Washington.

MANUEL BALCE CENETA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, center, with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, left, and Mexico’s Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal, right, speaks during the conclusion of the fourth round of negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Washington.