U.S. to enter Mexico deal as Canada talks continue
Decision to pursue trilateral deal a significant win for NAFTA supporters
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration told Congress on Friday that it intends to enter into a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and will continue working to keep Canada in the pact as talks between the United States and Canada move into next week.
While sticking points still remain between the United States and Canada, the decision to try to keep a trilateral deal is a significant win for NAFTA supporters and an indication that the Trump administration, despite its threats to leave its northern neighbor behind, wants to keep Canada in the pact.
“Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now,” Robert E. Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement. Lighthizer called the ongoing talks with Canada “constructive” and said, “Our officials are continuing to work toward agreement.”
The decision to try to reach an agreement capped off a rocky negotiating session Friday, as the United States and Canada struggled to reach agreement on several key issues and President Donald Trump continued to disparage Canada and its trade practices, raising fears that the last-ditch talks to salvage the pact could falter.
The Trump administration had set a Friday deadline to strike a deal with Canada, threatening to move ahead with a bilateral trade pact with just Mexico if an agreement between the three countries could not be reached. After several days of marathon meetings that seemed to presage a deal, the chances of such an agreement by the end of Friday began looking doubtful.
The United States and Canada have agreed to negotiate beyond the Friday deadline. While members of Congress could theoretically object, they are unlikely to do so, since most are eager for Canada to remain part of the pact.
On Friday, talks between the United States and Canada remained deadlocked over several contentious issues, including Canada’s dairy sector, its rules governing movies, books and other media, and a mechanism for settling trade disputes between the two countries, people briefed on the talks said.
On Friday morning, the U.S. trade representative put out a statement saying that Canada had yet to make any concessions on dairy products, which has become a source of ire for Trump. “The negotiations between the United States and Canada are ongoing,” a spokeswoman for the U.S. trade representative said in a statement. “There have been no concessions by Canada on agriculture.”
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, said repeatedly this week that Canada and the United States had agreed not to discuss the details of the talks in public while negotiations were taking place.
Arriving for a meeting with Lighthizer on Friday morning, Freeland said that she was looking forward to hearing what he had to say after a night of reflection. But after a meeting that lasted more than an hour, it appeared that the two sides were no closer to a deal.
“We are not there yet,” Freeland told reporters outside of the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “Canada is a country that is good at finding win-win compromises — having said that, in trade negotiations, in this negotiation, we always stand up for the national interest.”