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Trade: Contentious NAFTA talks hit impasse
A fourth round of NAFTA talks concluded this week with negotiators at loggerheads, said Don Lee in the Los Angeles Times. Trade officials from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. indicated they had made little progress updating the 23-year-old pact, and representatives from Mexico and Canada were “openly critical” of what they called overly protectionist U.S. demands to rewrite provisions on trade in automobiles, dairy, and produce. Citing “significant conceptual gaps” in how to proceed, negotiators agreed to a monthlong “timeout” before a fifth round of talks begins Nov. 17. They also indicated that negotiations, which were meant to conclude by December, could now extend “well into next year.” “The extension signals the potential demise of the trade pact,” said Ana Swanson in The New York Times. Negotiators will find it even more difficult to come to an agreement on major outstanding issues in 2018, when talks will “collide with political events in all three countries that will only harden each nation’s stance.” The Mexican presidential campaign begins early next year, along with the campaigns for the U.S. midterm elections and Canadian provincial elections. The possibility remained this week that the U.S. could simply walk away from the pact. “If we end up not having an agreement, my guess is all three countries will do just fine,” said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.