[CTC] U.S., Mexico Said Poised to Reach Nafta Deal as Soon as Monday

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-08-26/u-s-mexico-said-poised-to-reach-nafta-deal-as-soon-as-monday

U.S., Mexico Said Poised to Reach Nafta Deal as Soon as MondayBy
Eric Martin <https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AOaOh6XkAJY/eric-martin>
 and
Jennifer Jacobs
<https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/ASzQCOA5TQg/jennifer-jacobs>
August 26, 2018, 11:11 AM EDT

   - Nations said to have breakthroughs on autos, energy industry
   - Agreement on bilateral issues would allow Canada to rejoin


The U.S. and Mexico are close to resolving bilateral differences on Nafta
and may wrap up as soon as Monday, said three people familiar with the
progress, clearing the way for Canada to possibly return to talks to update
the three-nation trade pact.

The nations achieved significant breakthroughs in the past several days on
the critical issues of automobiles and energy, according to the people, who
asked not to be named discussing private talks. Talks are expected to
continue Sunday.
President Donald Trump was optimistic on Saturday, saying on Twitter
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/PE0QHHAIBMDC> that the U.S. could
have a “big Trade Agreement” with its southern neighbor soon. The terms of
any deal struck by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would need
Trump’s final approval.

It remains unclear how U.S. and Mexican negotiators would make public the
completion of work on their bilateral issues, given that Mexican Economy
Minister Ildefonso Guajardo has signaled that the nation won’t make an
announcement on Nafta until Canada also signs on to a new deal.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday morning that
the administration has “no announcements or anything finalized at this
time.”
Five Weeks

The administrations of Trump and Enrique Pena Nieto have been working for
five weeks to resolve their bilateral issues so Canada can rejoin the talks
to update the decades-old trade pact. The U.S. and Mexico are pushing for
an agreement this month that would give the countries time to sign the pact
before Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office in
December.

Guajardo press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Canadian official declined to comment and referred back to remarks last
week from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said he was encouraged by
optimism coming from the U.S. and Mexico but won’t sign just any deal
<https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2018-08-23/trudeau-says-he-won-t-settle-for-bad-nafta-as-talks-continue>
.
On Saturday, Lopez Obrador’s envoy Jesus Seade told reporters upon arrival
at a meeting with Lighthizer in Washington that the nations have resolved
concerns that the deal had too many restrictions on how the next government
can treat foreign oil companies investing in Mexico.

Guajardo, going into the same meeting, said that he expected Saturday to be
an “important day” for the negotiations. Neither Seade or Guajardo
commented when they emerged from the talks some hours later.
Factory Jobs

The U.S. and Mexico in recent weeks had largely focused on the thorny issue
of car manufacturing, as the Trump administration pushes for a deal that
would boost factory jobs in America. The U.S. has proposed tightening
regional content requirements for car production and having a certain
percentage of a car manufactured by higher-paid workers.

While a U.S. proposal to increase tariffs on cars imported from Mexico that
don’t meet stricter new content rules was a sticking point as recently as
last week, that issue appeared to be resolved by Thursday.

The U.S. agreed to keep the 2.5 percent tariff currently applied under
World Trade Organization rules if the cars are made at factories that
already exist, according to two people familiar with the plans, who asked
not to be named discussing private negotiations.

That would leave open the possibility that cars that don’t meet the rules
and are built at new plants could face tariffs of 20 percent to 25 percent,
pending the results of a Section 232 national security investigation that
Trump ordered in May, the people said.

While Trump has floated the idea of negotiating bilateral trade accords --
finalizing one with Mexico before moving on to Canada -- both Mexico and
Canada have said they want to keep a three-nation deal.

— With assistance by Josh Wingrove


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20180826/1f8ed33e/attachment.html>