Trade talks appear to progress

WASHINGTON — Negotiations between the United States and some of its largest trading partners yielded largely positive rhetoric Thursday, though the details of any concrete change remained unclear.

In Washington, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland emerged from talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to say she was “encouraged by the constructive atmosphere” as the countries attempt to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Our officials did some work, they’ve prepared some issues for me and Ambassador Lighthizer to take some decisions, and we’re about to go in to continue negotiating to do precisely that,” Freeland told reporters around midday.

And in Brussels, the European Union’s trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said the bloc is willing to eliminate tariffs on imported cars if the U.S. does the same, which President Donald Trump has suggested he was open to.

The EU currently charges a 10 percent tariff on imported U.S. automobiles, while the U.S. charges a 2.5 percent tariff on European cars and a 25 percent tariff on imported pickup trucks and SUVs.

The conciliatory language marks a shift from earlier this summer, when the U.S. was slapping steep new tariffs on its trading partners and eliciting retaliatory tariffs in response.

In late July, Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stepped back from the escalating trade war by announcing the outlines of an agreement to ease tensions and avoid hitting each other with further tariffs. That preliminary deal called for both sides to “work together toward zero tariffs” on nonauto industrial goods.

Malmstrom went a step beyond that on Thursday by saying the EU would also consider zero tariffs on auto imports, though she stressed the step would have to be “reciprocal.”

Chad Bown, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said Trump has “called for zero tariffs on everything.”