Negotiators for the U.S., Canada and Mexico resumed meetings on Monday aimed at revising the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in what could be their final chance to reach a deal before the talks are put on hold during upcoming elections.
Observers say any deal hinges on the ability of Mexico and the United States to resolve a dispute over auto parts. Mexico offered a counter-proposal on auto parts Monday afternoon in its first meeting of the current round with the U.S., which ran slightly over and delayed the first Canada-U.S. session until Tuesday.
If an agreement is not reached this week, it is unlikely that NAFTA will be revised this year as both Mexico and the U.S. will soon be immersed in national election campaigns through the remainder of 2018. Mexico has an upcoming presidential election and the U.S. has midterm congressional elections.
Reaching agreement this week may be difficult as several contentious issues remain unresolved among the three countries more than eight months after talks to renegotiate NAFTA began. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland hope to be in the home stretch of negotiations– although the “home stretch” analogy has been used before in these talks.
Despite insisting that he wants to secure a deal in the coming weeks, Secretary Lighthizer hasn’t shown signs of softening on proposals that Canada and Mexico see as damaging to their interests, particularly concerning the automotive industry.
The U.S. is pushing to reach a NAFTA deal in principle to start advancing it through Congress, which is understood to mean 95% of the deal is agreed to, according to a summary of a Canadian government briefing published online last week. This week’s talks are scheduled to continue Tuesday and Wednesday.
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