Negotiator defends the slow pace of talks
OTTAWA The chief U.S. negotiator rejected Monday suggestions that the Americans are deliberately dragging their feet in talks to rewrite the North American Free Trade Agreement — and he got backup from Canada’s lead minister on the file, Chrystia Freeland.
John Melle said he sees no issue with the pace of the talks, in their third round this week in Ottawa, even though the U.S. has yet to table detailed proposals on any of the most contentious issues.
“We’ve been working very hard,” he said. “I don’t see a problem.”
The failure by the United States to lay all its cards on the table has prompted many trade experts and stakeholders to predict there is no way the three countries can strike a deal by the end of the year, as the Americans want. Some have gone so far as to say the slow-motion reveal of key American demands suggests the U.S. is not serious about wanting a deal.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland came to the United States’ defence, saying it’s “standard practice” in trade negotiations and “just common sense” to begin with the easiest issues on which there is substantial agreement, leaving the more difficult ones until closer to the end of the talks.
“The approach that all three countries have been taking is to look for areas where we have the most common ground, to look to consolidate, to stabilize the text there and then, having gotten to the base camp of the negotiations, then to tackle the more difficult ascents,” she said.
Freeland added that the talks have already produced “solid progress” on “bread and butter trade issues.”
“These might not be the most sexy issues but they are the issues that really matter to Canadian business people, things like electronic forms, like automatic declarations of origin, like harmonizing regulation ... This is going to make the lives of Canadian business people a lot easier.”
Freeland acknowledged that the U.S. has not yet tabled detailed proposals on some of the most contentious areas but stressed that negotiators are nevertheless “right now working on all areas of the negotiation.”
Melle too said the negotiations are “moving across the board — very ambitious.” And he cited U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to describe the breakneck pace of the talks.
“We’re working, as my boss said, at ‘warp speed.’ I think that’s accurate.”
The talks are proceeding at an accelerated pace in a bid to reach a deal by year-end, with only a couple of weeks between negotiating rounds. The U.S. and Mexico want a quick deal to prevent NAFTA from becoming a political football in the run-up to next fall’s mid-term congressional elections and Mexico’s general election in July.