No trade deal emerged from the US and Canada negotiations on the rejig of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) following which United States President Donald Trump told the Congress that his administration wanted to move ahead with a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico.
However, US and Canada trade representatives would meet again on Wednesday to resume talks to forge out a deal that can be agreed to by all of the three countries of Nafta.
The sticking points in the talks between the US and Canada included the demand to the closed dairy market of Canada for US companies and the maintenance of a trade dispute settlement system as demanded by Canada against the wishes of the United States.
“For Canada, the focus is on getting a good deal, and once we have a good deal for Canada, we’ll be done,” the country’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, told a news conference.
The importance of the Nafta have been stressed by all of the three countries because the total volume of trade under the deal is around $1.2 trillion. Canada rejoined the Nafta talks after the US and Mexico agreed on a bilateral trade deal.
However, some unofficial comments made by Trump in an interview with Bloomberg where he said that any agreement on trade with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He later confirmed the comments.
“At least Canada knows where I stand,” Trump later said on Twitter.
Trump told the Congress that he wants the deal to be signed the end of November.
Some concerns about Canada not being part of the trade agreement between the US and Mexico were express3ed by some U.S. lawmakers and business groups.
“Anything other than a trilateral agreement won’t win Congressional approval and would lose business support,” the chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, said in a statement.
He was confident that there would be an agreement between the United States and Canada, said Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo after a meeting with Freeland.
During the negotiations, the offers by Freeland to conceded some parts of the dairy market of Canada but that did not convince U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to budge on the strand of the US about maintaining the independent trade dispute resolution mechanism under Chapter 19 of NAFTA, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.
Canada had made no concessions on agriculture including dairy, claimed a USTR spokeswoman.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
However, US and Canada trade representatives would meet again on Wednesday to resume talks to forge out a deal that can be agreed to by all of the three countries of Nafta.
The sticking points in the talks between the US and Canada included the demand to the closed dairy market of Canada for US companies and the maintenance of a trade dispute settlement system as demanded by Canada against the wishes of the United States.
“For Canada, the focus is on getting a good deal, and once we have a good deal for Canada, we’ll be done,” the country’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, told a news conference.
The importance of the Nafta have been stressed by all of the three countries because the total volume of trade under the deal is around $1.2 trillion. Canada rejoined the Nafta talks after the US and Mexico agreed on a bilateral trade deal.
However, some unofficial comments made by Trump in an interview with Bloomberg where he said that any agreement on trade with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He later confirmed the comments.
“At least Canada knows where I stand,” Trump later said on Twitter.
Trump told the Congress that he wants the deal to be signed the end of November.
Some concerns about Canada not being part of the trade agreement between the US and Mexico were express3ed by some U.S. lawmakers and business groups.
“Anything other than a trilateral agreement won’t win Congressional approval and would lose business support,” the chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, said in a statement.
He was confident that there would be an agreement between the United States and Canada, said Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo after a meeting with Freeland.
During the negotiations, the offers by Freeland to conceded some parts of the dairy market of Canada but that did not convince U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to budge on the strand of the US about maintaining the independent trade dispute resolution mechanism under Chapter 19 of NAFTA, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.
Canada had made no concessions on agriculture including dairy, claimed a USTR spokeswoman.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
