Canada Frozen Out of Nafta Amid U.S.- Mexico Talks
Source: Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- Canada has been rebuffed in recent attempts to engage on Nafta with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer amid talks between the Trump administration and Mexico, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations.
The Canadian negotiating team, led by Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, has been told that Lighthizer is focusing on negotiations with Mexico and isnt interested in engaging with Canada at the moment, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing private conversations. The situation was first reported by the National Post newspaper.
Freeland traveled to Mexico last week, and the trip was motivated in part by the U.S. decision to isolate Canada from the talks, according to one of the people. While Mexico and Canada have repeatedly emphasized the need to keep the deal between all three countries, negotiating with Mexico and then Canada would be in keeping with President Donald Trumps preference for striking bilateral agreements.
The Trump administration has clear frustrations with the Canadian governments approach to the Nafta modernization, and were now seeing it play out in front of our faces, Adam Taylor, principal and co-founder at trade advisory firm Export Action Global, said by phone from Ottawa. Weve seen virtually overnight Mexico and the U.S. are moving forward and Canada looks left behind and then forced into a position where it has to make a significant set of concessions just to be readmitted to the talks, it seems....More...
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/canada-frozen-out-of-nafta-amid-us-mexico-talks/ar-BBLjV0t?li=BBnb7Kz
msongs
(67,405 posts)djacq
(1,633 posts)NAFTA might as well be just Canada and Mexico.
louis c
(8,652 posts)The new President will be sworn in in December.
metalbot
(1,058 posts)On the side of the (current) Mexican government, they can negotiate a deal, have the new government reject it, then they can blame any failure to reach a deal on the new government.
On Trump's side, he can negotiate "the very best deal" that the new government will reject, then he can spend the next 2 years blaming Mexico for the failure of a trade deal.
(pardon my cynicism)
LiberalLovinLug
(14,173 posts)The more right leaning Mexican government going out wants to make as much pain for the more leftist government coming in to deal with. And it helps Trump in that he can have a great announcement on a big deal before the mid-terms.