Canada's lead minister on the North American Free Trade Agreement file is cancelling her plans to attend the NATO summit in Brussels to participate in vital late-game trade talks in Washington D.C.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is sending her parliamentary secretary, Omar Alghabra, to Belgium in her place.

Freeland and her counterparts from Mexico and the U.S. are currently engaged in the third straight day of face to face talks, in an attempt to make significant progress before May 1. Those talks will continue on Friday; there's no official word on when the minister will be returning to Canada. 

This was excerpted from the 26 April 2018 edition of CBC News.