Canada’s Minister ‘very keen’ on wrapping up year-old NAFTA talks

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada is “very keen” on concluding negotiations to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement as soon as possible, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said last Saturday, amid signs of progress after months of delays.

Ms Freeland attended a bilateral meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore.

Talks to modernize the 1994 trade pact started in August 2017 but have dragged on much longer than expected as Canada and Mexico pushed back against far-reaching US demands for reform. President Donald Trump has said he will walk away from NAFTA unless major changes are made.

In a renewed push, Mexican and US cabinet ministers held a series of meetings in Washington over the past week in a bid to work out their differences.

One Mexican official expressed optimism that some kind of agreement could be reached by the end of the month.

“I and Canada are very, very keen to get it done as quickly as possible,” Ms Freeland told reporters on a conference call.

She did not answer directly when asked whether the end of August was a realistic deadline.

Mexican and US officials are due to meet again next week to work on contentious issues such as wages and rules governing how much North American produced content an automobile must contain to qualify for duty-free status.

Ms Freeland said she was ready to join the talks at any time but did not give details. Canadian officials dismiss speculation that she is being sidelined.

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