Trade
talks in Mexico ended this week with a standoff among negotiators for
the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Canadian
Trade Minister Christia Freeland said she will not agree to the
U.S. demands to change the disputes-settling system and for five-year reviews.
Mexico
is equally adamant on those issues and joins Canada in resisting U.S.
auto-industry demands.
US.
trade representative Robert Lighthizer remains stubborn and issued
the following statement:
“While
we have made progress on some of our efforts to modernize NAFTA, I
remain concerned about the lack of headway. Thus far, we have seen no
evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on
provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement. Absent
rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result.
“A
rebalanced, updated NAFTA will promote greater prosperity for
American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses and strengthen the
North American region as a whole.
"Our teams will be meeting again next month in Washington. I hope our partners will come to the table in a serious way so we can see meaningful progress before the end of the year.”
"Our teams will be meeting again next month in Washington. I hope our partners will come to the table in a serious way so we can see meaningful progress before the end of the year.”
