by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) became uncertain when the US and Canada failed to come to a consensus on rewriting the three-nation trade pact.
“We know a win-win-win agreement is within reach and that’s what we’re working towards,” said Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland at a press conference on Friday.
The US Trade Representative’s office said talks with Canada would continue on Wednesday and that President Donald Trump has formally notified Congress of the trade deal he struck with Mexico earlier this week, reports CNN.
“Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now. The agreement is the most advanced and high-standard trade agreement in the world,” the statement said.
Talks came to a head on Friday as officials rushed to beat a US-imposed deadline that would allow them to sign the deal before Mexico’s president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, takes office on December 1.
The US and Mexico announced a preliminary bilateral deal earlier this week after resolving an issue over auto manufacturing. Canadian officials rejoined the talks this week.
Officials from both the US and Canadian negotiating teams confirmed on Friday that they will continue working towards a trilateral deal, and that good progress has been made over the past year at revamping the 24-year-old trade deal.
“The government of Canada will not sign an agreement unless it’s good for Canada and good for Canadians,” Freeland said Friday.
At issue is Canadian concessions on agriculture.
Trump has said he wants Canada to end its steep tariffs on US dairy products, claiming they hurt US farmers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to protect his country’s dairy industry.
The White House must give Congress an official 90-day notice before entering into a new trade deal. Since administration notified Congress on Friday, Trump will be allowed to sign the deal by November 30, reports CNN.
Even then, Congress could still block the deal. It’s unlikely any rewrite of NAFTA would come up for a vote until 2019.
The text of the agreement does not have to be submitted to Congress until September 30.
The governments of Canada and Mexico must also ratify the agreement and if they don’t, then there’s no deal.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Barry Ellsworth,
Trenton, Canada: Canada on Tuesday put a positive spin at being left out of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks, saying it is a good sign that the U.S. and Mexico are trying to work out differences between themselves.
The U.S. excluded Canada at NAFTA renegotiation meetings later this week with Mexico in Washington.
Some saw that as a sign that the Trump administration wants to play hardball, signaling that Canada must offer concessions if it wants to join in the free trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico.
U.S. President Donald Trump has mused on several occasions that he may kill the deal because it is a bad one for America and instead sign separate agreements with each country.
Some pundits even went so far as to say that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer did not like Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland talking with other American politicians, trying to drum up support for the deal.
Just last week, both Freeland and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo reaffirmed that any new NAFTA had to include all three countries and could not include a sunset clause, where the terms would be negotiated every five years. Both said the uncertainty would scare off investors.
But two anonymous Canadian officials were quoted by Canadian media Tuesday as saying they are not ‘not fazed at all’ about only two of the partners at the renegotiating table this week.
“I actually feel somewhat cautiously encouraged by the fact that the Mexicans are able to be back at the table,” one official said. “I think the fact they’re able to carve out some space to pick up on the conversation from where it was at, without knowing the outcomes, that at least in and of itself is not a bad thing.”
The other Canadian official pointed out that last Monday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he thought negotiations were on a “pretty fast track” with Mexico and said the U.S. has fewer differences to resolve with Canada.
The two Canadian officials said Canada expected to be invited back to the NAFTA talks in mid-August.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, World
Ildefonso Guajardo
Mexico City : Talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will restart on July 26 in Washington, Mexico Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has said.
“The three countries are resuming negotiations,” Guajardo told the media on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Negotiators from Mexico, the US and Canada will be present at the talks.
“We will begin with a bilateral (meeting) between Mexico and the US, before other meetings with Canada,” explained the minister.
Guajardo dismissed the request made on Monday by the US to the World Trade Organization (WTO), to begin discussions with Mexico over the retaliatory tariffs, applied by Mexico on US products, that could hinder negotiations.
NAFTA renegotiations began in August last year after demands made by the Donald Trump (US President) administration. Trump believes the deal to be the worst his country has ever signed and has threatened to abandon it.
The negotiating teams had hoped to reach an “agreement in principle” at the beginning of May, but talks were suspended after disagreements between Mexico and Canada over demands made by the US.
Guajardo also said that the 13th Summit of the Pacific Alliance offered Mexico a great opportunity for market diversification.
However, the Mexican minister added that the summit, to be held between July 21-24 at the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, is independent to the relationship between Mexico and the US.
“The Pacific Alliance has been a very effective mechanism to relaunch a position as a modern Latin America, which is now open to associated members,” he said.
The Pacific Alliance is a regional trade bloc in Latin America, formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Social Round-up, World
Quebec (Canada) : Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Donald Trump discussed accelerating the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) talks during a bilateral meeting at the ongoing G7 summit here.
“The Prime Minister and the President had a very positive, productive meeting and it lasted longer than originally scheduled,” CBC News quoted a senior Candian government official as saying on Friday.
“They did discuss NAFTA at length and they discussed the future of NAFTA, and I would say they also talked about accelerating the talks.”
Speaking after the meeting with Trudeau, Trump said he had a positive meeting with the Canadians during which NAFTA was the principal topic of discussion.
“We had a very positive meeting a little while ago on NAFTA. So this is turning out to be an interesting day. But we had a very, very good meeting on NAFTA with Justin and his representatives,” Trump said.
The reportedly positive tone of the leaders’ one-on-one meeting stood in stark contrast to a week of increasingly testy public statements by Trump, following Canada’s announcement last week that it would impose $16.6 billion in tariffs against US products on July 1 in retaliation against the American tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium.
Trump’s only other bilateral meeting on Friday was with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, CBC News reported.
Like Trudeau, Trump has sparred publicly with Macron on Twitter over what the US President calls unfair trade deals that impoverish American interests to the benefit of its allies.
But on the tariffs, the leaders sounded a bit optimistic on Friday.
“We had a very direct and open discussion,” Macron told reporters Friday of his one-on-one with Trump.
“And I saw the willingness on all the sides to find agreements and have a win-win approach for our people, our workers, and our middle classes.”
Besides the bilateral meetings, the G7 leaders took part in two working groups where discussion of trade was front and centre.
Before leaving for the summit, Trump called for reinstating Russia into the group of top industrialised nations after its expulsion for annexing Crimea, reports the BBC.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said all the European Union members were against the idea.
Trump will the two-day summit early to head to Singapore for his landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Barry Ellsworth,
Trenton, Canada: The U.S. floated the idea Tuesday of separate trade talks with Mexico and Canada rather than a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the three countries as signatories.
But Canada’s reaction was to immediately dismiss the suggestion.
“As Canada has maintained right from the beginning, we believe in a trilateral NAFTA, we believe that together it’s been a win-win-win for our three economies and all three nations have prospered,” said Andrew Leslie, the parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister in charge of Canada-U.S. relations.
Trade between the three nations totaled about US$1.1 trillion in 2016, about three-and-a-half times that of the first year of the deal in 1994.
Renegotiations on a new NAFTA have been underway since August 2017 and have stalled primarily due to U.S. insistence on a high percentage of American parts used in vehicles made in all three countries. Even if that impasse is overcome, the U.S. also wants a sunset clause that would see the deal renegotiated every five years, something both Canada and Mexico have balked at because they believe it would create an uncertain investment climate.
Larry Kudlow, U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic advisor, said the president is “very seriously contemplating a shift in NAFTA negotiations”.
“His preference now — and he asked me to convey this — is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately,” Kudlow told Fox News on Tuesday.
He said he conveyed that message on Monday to an official close to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
To date, there has been no official public statement from Trudeau.
Kudlow said Trump is not going to walk away from NAFTA negotiations but was interested in a new approach that could include bilateral talks.
—AA
