Hossen Sohel: Efforts to salvage the North American Free Trade Agreement as a three-country pact were due to resume yesterday when Canada and the US sit down at the negotiating table in a politically charged atmosphere, reports AFP.
But the talks will be dogged by President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to leave Canada on the sidelines and proceed with Mexico, which reached a deal with Washington last week and could sign NAFTA 2.0 as soon as November 30.
Amid rising optimism last week that an agreement would soon be finalized on a rewrite of the 25-year-old trade deal, inflammatory comments from Trump angered officials in Ottawa and the discussions ended Friday with no agreement.
And Trump continued his tough talk throughout the weekend.
“There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don’t make a fair deal for the U.S. after decades of abuse, Canada will be out,” he tweeted.
“Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely & we will be far better off.”
The White House notified Congress on Friday of its “intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now.”
The White House has until September 30 days before it must present the full text of the new agreement to Congress, which will give Ottawa and Washington time to iron out remaining differences.
– Trilateral or no bilateral? –
But legislators and trade law experts have warned that Trump does not have the authority to supplant the three-nation NAFTA with a bilateral pact with Canada.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is due to return to Washington for talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday morning.