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OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Tuesday to discuss negotiations to renew the NAFTA trade pact, a government official said Monday.
PHOTO: Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland after meeting with Mexico's President-elect Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City, Mexico, July 25, 2018. REUTERS / Luisa Gonzalez / File Photo
Freeland spokesman Adam Austen did not give details. After more than a year of talks, Canada and the United States are still trying to resolve their differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Mexico.
US officials say time is running out to reach an agreement on which the current Congress can vote. Freeland spent a day in Washington last week and said that she and Lighthizer were progressing very well in some areas, although an agreement was still out of reach.
Austen, asked if Freeland could return to Washington later in the week, said that no decision had been taken. She is scheduled to attend a two-day meeting of Liberal Party legislators in western Canada on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to officials, Canada's milk quota system, Ottawa's desire to maintain a dispute settlement mechanism, and Canadian media laws that favor domestic production are the main sticking points.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, who says he is ready to rip NAFTA, has reached a trade agreement with Mexico and has threatened to continue without Canada.
Reportage by David Ljunggren; edited by Diane Craft and James Dalgleish
