NAFTA nations lock horns on U.S. auto demands as fifth round ends

November 21, 2017

Negotiators from the United States, Mexico and Canada square off on Tuesday for the last time in a fifth round of talks to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement, with stalemate brewing on a contentious proposal to ramp up regional content for autos.

Officials and lobbyists say Mexico and Canada will firmly push back against the U.S. demand to raise the minimum threshold for NAFTA autos to 85 percent from 62.5 percent, as well as insist that fully half the content is from the United States.

The proposal is a central plank of U.S. President Donald Trump’s America First strategy to bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States, though it faces stiff resistance from the auto industry, which questions its viability.

Mexican and Canadian officials say they want the United States to explain how the auto plan could prosper in view of the skepticism, and have repeatedly indicated they have no intention of responding to the scheme with a counterproposal.

This was excerpted from the 21 November 2017 edition of Reuters News.

Topic(s)

Trade Agreements

Information source

Canadian News Channel

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