ZCZC
BCN-14
US-MEXICO-TRADE-NAFTA
US, Mexican negotiators set for more NAFTA talks
WASHINGTON, Aug 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Talks between US and Mexican
negotiators on updating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are
set to resume Monday after a weekend of marathon bargaining in Washington,
and hints that a deal is near.
Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo cited unspecified “advances”
following eight hours of talks Sunday with a team led by US Trade
Representative Robert Lighthizer and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and
senior White House adviser Jared Kushner.
Talks will resume at 9am (1300 GMT) Monday, Guajardo said.
The negotiations are aimed at ironing out bilateral issues and then
finalizing the new agreement with Canada, the third NAFTA partner.
Guajardo and Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray have been shuttling
back and forth to Washington for more than a month for meetings with
Lighthizer to try to iron out the bilateral stumbling blocks, including rules
for the auto market, before the end of August.
Talks ground to a halt in May, in part due to the July 1 presidential
elections in Mexico.
The trilateral treaty has been a key target in Trump’s aggressive trade
strategy, and he has repeatedly threatened to scrap it altogether, branding
it a “disaster.”
But after a year of intense negotiations to salvage the 25-year-old pact,
the United States and Mexico appear close to a point where Canada — which
had been waiting for US-Mexican agreement on auto industry rules — can
rejoin the talks.
US and Mexican negotiators are keen to seal a new deal before Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto hands over power to president-elect Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador on December 1. For that to happen, the US Congress must
be notified 90 days in advance.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland of Canada said earlier that she was
encouraged by the progress and would rejoin the talks once bilateral
discussions concluded.
Trump hinted that a deal was near in a Saturday morning tweet.
“Our relationship with Mexico is getting closer by the hour,” Trump wrote.
“A big Trade Agreement with Mexico could be happening soon!”
BSS/AFP/HR/1217