Canada’s race against time with US to reach NAFTA deal

MONETREAL: Will Canada and the United States thaw their unprecedented diplomatic chill and reach a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement by a US-imposed Sunday deadline? Ottawa is certainly working hard on it.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s chief NAFTA negotiator, opted to push back her planned Saturday speech before the UN General Assembly until Monday so she could concentrate on trade matters. Those talks are now in a crucial phase. Negotiators are racing against the clock because of a US-set deadline. The United States and Mexico want to push their deal through their respective legislatures before Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office on December 1.

In the United States, Congress must have the text of the deal by Sunday if a 60-day review period is to be respected. In a surprise twist, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Friday that Washington and Ottawa had told him they could reach a compromise on an updated trilateral agreement within “48 hours.”

“For the first time, we’re seeing a real effort by both sides,” Guajardo added. US and Canadian negotiators were expected to work all weekend via secure video link, The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Saturday, citing sources in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration and on the US industry side.

Tough talks US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a complete overhaul of the 25-year-old continental trade deal, which he says has been a “rip-off” for the United States. In August-more than a year into the negotiations-the United States and Mexico announced they had reached a two-way deal, after breaking away for bilateral talks on their outstanding issues. — AFP