U.S. envoy: ‘Some progress’ made in latest NAFTA talks

The goal is to maintain some auto production – and jobs – in North America.

All eyes will be on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer when he meets on Monday with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal for the first time in three months following the conclusion of the latest round of NAFTA negotiations in the Canadian city of Montreal. The regional vehicle content requirement, the Americans demanded would also be sharply increased to 85 per cent from the current 62.5 per cent.

Alberta beef producers are more optimistic than ever about a North American Free Trade Agreement deal that would avoid disrupting their industry. They also face strained relations between the United States and Mexico, a major buyer of US corn, wheat, beef, pork and dairy products.

NAFTA negotiations are set to conclude in Montreal on Monday.

Canada and Mexico see that as a positive development.

She says doubts about NAFTA’s fate aren’t good for business.

Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo thanked Canada for putting forward ideas in several areas that were created to try and move the trade talks forward.

Without NAFTA, many economists say, the price of some consumer goods would probably go up. “The concept embedded in the Canadian proposal is defensible”. The President can take credit every time a company opens a plant in the United States – as he did this month when Fiat Chrysler chose to move production of Ram trucks from Mexico to MI.

“We’re anxious about it going into 2019”, Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade, told the Washington Post.

Jerry Dias, the head of a union which represents some Bombardier workers, told reporters the ruling represented “a slap across the face of the Trump administration” because it showed that taking protectionist stances at a time when the two nations’ economies are so tightly linked was “foolish”. Both Canada and Mexico are invested in keeping NAFTA alive, especially Mexico, which stands to lose the most if the deal collapses.

Canadian officials say their USA counterparts have asked a series of questions about how the plan would work. Canada and Mexico have also threatened to keep some form of their own investor dispute system that the USA wants to opt out of.

Trade lawyer Mark Warner said he believes Canada’s position is a ploy to divert attention from a larger, related priority: saving Chapter 19, which lays out the appeal process for anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

Canada’s chief NAFTA negotiator Steve Verheul arrives at the sixth round of the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations on Friday, January 26, 2018 in Montreal.

He said Canadian milk for the most part is made and processed in Canada, and dairy farmers in Canada want it to stay that way. We owe it to our citizens who are operating in a state of uncertainty to move much faster.

Mr Lighthizer also lashed out at Canada for filing a complaint at the World Trade Organization just before the opening of this round.

Over the weekend, Hurd and 10 other members of Congress met with negotiators from all sides.

Leaving the treaty in limbo until after the November mid-terms could work in his favor, other executives and trade analysts tracking the talks said.

In her panel discussion, Freeland said NAFTA talks will be a success if they cut red tape and lead to more companies taking advantage of the accord, as 40 percent of Canadian exporters to the United States don’t bother using NAFTA because of the regulatory burden. While no one can predict exactly how these mechanisms would play out, they underscore the enormous complexity of the North American food system.

Chapters on telecommunication, digital trade, and sanitary measures are near completion, Guajardo said. Even if the United States makes some small concessions, it’s reluctant to concede anything that would clash with the administration’s push to reduce trade deficits and to level the playing field for worldwide trade.

“If the United States would pull out of NAFTA, that would be very bad for the Kansas farmer and the Kansas economy”, said Kearny County farmer Kyler Millershaski.

Negotiating rounds are scheduled up until March.