Colorado Politics

US-Canada NAFTA talks to resume Tuesday

U.S. and Canadian negotiators will meet in Washington Tuesday to resume talks regarding fitting President Trump’s trade deal with Mexico into the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, a week earlier than previously indicated, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Monday.

Canada and Mexico rank as Colorado’s two biggest foreign trade markets. In 2016, the state exported $1.4 billion in goods to Canada and $1.1 billion in goods to Mexico, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

 

Talks between the U.S. and Canada to get its assent to the administration’s bilateral trade deal with Mexico fell short in late August, prompting the administration to submit the deal to Congress on Aug. 30, arguing that Canada’s support is not essential to the deal’s approval. Nevertheless, the two sides have continued talking, neither willing to abandon efforts to square the deal within the NAFTA framework.

“We are certainly making very good progress at understanding each other, understanding what each side needs,” Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters last week.

The lack of support from Canada could nevertheless cause the deal to stall in Congress, many lawmakers having argued that Canada must be on board to prevent the deal from disrupting the NAFTA.

The U.S.-Mexican deal “supplants,” in the administration’s own words, parts of NAFTA, creating an uncertain legal situation if Congress approves the deal.

 
Luis Alonso Lugo

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