Fact-finding major goal of talks

NAFTA negotiators will meet this week in Washington D.C. to look for compromises, ways forward

WASHINGTON — Canada’s NAFTA negotiators are on a fact-finding mission this week in Washington, seeking places where compromises might be found in the new year when the talks enter a critical, potentially do-or-die phase.

Officials from the three NAFTA countries began gathering Monday at a downtown hotel for a week of meetings between formal rounds. Canadian officials say they expect less-controversial chapters to get closer to completion.

They don’t foresee formal offers, counter-offers and text-tabling happening on some of the hardest issues. Instead, one official said, the Canadian team intends to try learning more about what the U.S. hopes to achieve as an end goal, on auto parts for instance, to see whether there might be constructive pathways for achieving it that all countries can live with.

“We’re prepared to have conversations to better understand their priorities,” said the Canadian official, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the talks. “Perhaps there are other solutions ... We are always prepared to think creatively.”

Several of the toughest issues have seen early impasses: they include auto parts, agriculture, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. Canada and Mexico have described some U.S. proposals as non-starters, and have frustrated some U.S. officials by refusing to make counter-offers so far.

Trade watcher Dan Ujczo says several situations will soon push the situation to a head, with President Donald Trump facing a decision, likely by March, on whether to take steps to withdraw from the trade agreement. Those include the approaching Mexican election and U.S. midterm primaries; the conclusion of the easier, non-controversial NAFTA chapters; a U.S. debate over whether to extend its so-called fast-track law; and the end of the scheduled round of talks.

Ujczo says Trump will be tempted to make a big move around that time, before the U.S. midterm election season — so he can say he kept his promise to either rip up or renegotiate NAFTA.

“I think this is a clean-up-the-text round. Clean up the text, and really tee up the issues for 2018. (But) my biggest fear is we’re going to run out of clock in 2018,” he said. “If it becomes clear after Montreal that people aren’t negotiating, that there’s not a negotiation happening on autos and agriculture, they’re going to say, ‘What are you gonna do now, Mr. President?’ And then the reality is, even if he doesn’t want to act, he has to do some things by March ...

“If I was Canada and Mexico I wouldn’t give him an excuse to issue a notice to withdraw ... You’ve got to counterpropose on some of these issues. And come up with creative solutions. Doing nothing is not an option here.”