Canadian and U.S. negotiators held “constructive” talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Tuesday as efforts focused on agreeing new rules for the auto sector, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
Freeland, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are meeting in Washington this week in search of a breakthrough in the grinding talks to renegotiate NAFTA that began last August.
Hopes for a deal hinge substantially on the three countries’ ability to update rules for the automotive sector, the central plank of the Trump administration’s push to make changes to NAFTA that bring more jobs and investment to the United States.
After a brief meeting with Lighthizer, Freeland told reporters she had held “good, constructive” talks with the U.S. team and that discussions focused on auto rules of origin...
This was excerpted from the 8 May 2018 edition of CBC News.