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US-CANADA-MEXICO-NAFTA-TRADE
US, Mexico hope to reach new NAFTA accord next month
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US and Mexican officials said Thursday
they are aiming to conclude talks to remake the North American Free Trade
Agreement as soon as next month.
The new follows Wednesday’s ceasefire in trade hostilities between the
United States and the European Union, raising the possibility President
Donald Trump could declare victory in two fronts of his global trade
offensive.
The US, Mexico and Canada could reach “some kind of conclusion during the
course of August,” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a Senate
subcommittee.
He said “that’s not an unreasonable timeframe if everybody wants to get it
done,” adding that it would allow Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto to
sign the new deal before he leaves office December 1.
“That’s what our hope is,” Lighthizer said.
Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, in Washington for meetings
with Lighthizer, told reporters the sides were getting close, and had a
“window of opportunity” to reach a deal by the end of August.
He said “that is the expectation we all have” and are committed to,
although after the meeting he cautioned: “I cannot predict the end result.”
Jesus Seade, adviser to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador, who takes office December 1, said the meeting was “excellent,” and
he was “cautiously optimistic” on reaching a deal.
Talks are due to continue Friday.
But Lighthizer suggested he still favored a so-called sunset clause in US
trade agreements, requiring parties to renew them every five years.
US insistence on the sunset provision helped derail the NAFTA talks earlier
this year after both Canadian and Mexican officials rejected it outright.
“I think we clearly should have a sunset review,” he said.
In a possible dig at Ottawa, Lighthizer also said Mexican authorities had
been more cooperative than the Canadians.
“My hope is that we will before long have a conclusion with respect to
Mexico and as a result of that Canada will come in and begin to compromise,”
he said.
– China deal will take time –
“I don’t believe they’ve compromised in the same way the United States or
Mexico has.”
Canadian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment
from AFP on Thursday.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland met Wednesday with her Mexican
counterpart Luis Videgaray said there had been “significant progress” towards
revamping the two-decade-old trilateral agreement.
Talks were first launched last year after Trump demanded an overhaul of the
“terrible deal,” and he has threatened to pull out and then negotiate
separate bilateral deals, most recently in a letter to Lopez Obrador.
Freeland stressed that NAFTA remains “a trilateral agreement and that’s a
simple statement of the reality.”
Lighthizer also faced stiff questioning from senators who were anxious to
know how much longer Trump’s other trade confrontations would last.
Lawmakers in Trump’s own Republican Party have denounced his large-scale
campaign of tariffs since it began earlier this year, and companies have
begun to feel the pain of rising prices and lost markets.
Senators expressed renewed concern for farmers and manufacturers suffering
from the retaliation by US trading partners, as well as Alaskan fishers,
Maine lobster producers and Tennessee auto workers.
“There clearly is pain associated with what we’re doing,” Lighthizer
acknowledged.
The Agriculture Department this week announced a plan to provide up $12
billion in aid to farmers affected by retaliatory tariffs.
Lighthizer said it could take longer to resolve the concerns with China,
which the US has accused of unfair trade practices and theft of American
technology.
“If you look at NAFTA, I believe we’re very close,” he said, “but on the
specific question of China, the reality is it’s going to take time.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said US officials are willing to talk
with Beijing “any time China is willing to seriously negotiate.”
BSS/AFP/MRI/0824 hrs