NAFTA negotiations: Canada and Trump administration at impasse
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Sep 30, 2018
But late on Thursday, U.S. officials reached out to Canada to ask for details of Ottawa's negotiating demands and where it might be able to make compromises, Reuters reported. No such meeting was ever requested, a Trudeau spokesman told CNN, adding: "We do not have any comment beyond that". "We don't have any comment beyond that".
The back and forth about the supposed meeting comes amid the USA and Canada's acrimonious renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and follows months of souring relations between the two North American neighbors. Markets and business groups are openly fretting about the damage that a collapse could provoke.
"We're very unhappy with the negotiations and the negotiating style of Canada".
Speaking to reporters this morning in Ottawa, Trudeau disputed Trump's statement - insisting Canada did not request a meeting with the president this week.
He said both that there's a "good chance still" that the US and Canada will reach a deal, but also that "probably or possibly" they won't.
"We do not want to endanger the economic future, the financial stability of our country", he said, calling the agreement signed with the United States of "good agreement".
The two sides are still far apart on major issues such as how to settle disputes and US demands for more access to Canada's protected dairy market.
Under the U.S. Trade Promotion Authority law, known as TPA or "fast track", Mr. Trump must wait 90 days to sign an agreement after notifying Congress of his intention to do so.
Mr. Trump is using the threat of auto and auto part tariffs as a negotiating tool to persuade Canada to change its stance on trade involving dairy and other provisions in any NAFTA revision or replacement, economists and analysts have said.
It was a passing remark which nearly went unnoticed amid the bluster and hyperbole of Donald Trump's rambling press conference this week, but the president has yet again cast doubt on the future of critical free trade talks between Canada and the US.
"Most of the big issues are solved with Canada", White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Saturday in an interview with Fox News.
Guajardo said they would know within 48 hours, by Sunday, whether there was a trilateral deal or not. "Canada has treated us very badly".
-Auto tariffs would substantially impact Canada, a major auto exporter.
Mexican ambassador Dionisio Perez Jacome said his country still wants Canada to come on board, regardless of congressional deadlines.
A Trump administration official said the text of the agreement with Mexico was set to be published on Friday.
The administration had set a weekend deadline for Canada to join, a schedule created to allow Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to sign the deal before leaving office and being succeeded by incoming President Andres Manuel Loprez Obrador.
The official declined to be named because the matter has not yet been made public.
The Trump administration has said the text of an agreement between the three nations is needed by Sunday to allow the current Mexican government to sign it before it leaves office at the end of November.
WASHINGTON-Canada and the US have been engaged in "intense" NAFTA talks all week, a Canadian official said Friday, as they strived to reach a deal before the USA and Mexico started an official countdown to the possible signing of a deal that does not include Canada. In 2004, the Dominican Republic signed a Central American trade deal three months after the USA and several of its neighbors signed.