U.S., Canada Near a Deal on Nafta as Midnight Deadline Looms Still, differences remain and it is unclear whether they can be quickly closed, people familiar with the discussions say By Jacob M. Schlesinger in Washington and Kim Mackrael and Paul Vieira in Ottawa
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-canada-scramble-for-nafta-deal-beforemidnightdeadline-1538330067
U.S. and Canadian officials were nearing a deal Sunday afternoon on rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement, hoping to complete the new accord by the U.S.-imposed midnight deadline, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Trump administration officials told stakeholders over the weekend that they were on a path toward reaching their goal of having a draft of a trilateral agreement between the two countries and Mexico that could be published by late Sunday.
After a month of difficult negotiations between Washington and Ottawa— talks that seemed to break down altogether last week—there now appears to be a broad agreement by the top political leaders in both countries to pull out the stops and finalize an accord over the weekend, these people said.
Negotiators cautioned that, as of Sunday afternoon, disagreements between the two sides remained, especially on the nettlesome U.S. demand for greater access to Canada’s politically sensitive dairy market. And, people familiar with the talks said it wasn’t clear there would be enough time to close the gaps by the end of the day, especially since the two countries didn’t resume intensive negotiations to resolve differences until the weekend.
Still, the weekend activity was the most optimistic signal in weeks that the Trump administration was working to keep the quarter-century-old commercial bloc continentwide, rather than breaking it up, as President Trump has repeatedly threatened to do.
The U.S. and Mexico reached their own agreement a month ago on overhauling the agreement and invited Canada to sign on by Sept. 30.
Talks with Ottawa stalled last week, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress Thursday he didn’t think an agreement with Canada was likely by that deadline. Mr. Trump has said he would be willing to consider a new Nafta that excludes Canada if Ottawa didn’t make what he considered sufficient concessions on his timetable. The deadline doesn’t preclude Canada from joining a revised Nafta later. CONTINUE AT SITE
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