Clock ticks down on potential Sunday NAFTA deadline


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Negotiations for a new North American Free Trade Agreement are again at a critical point as the clock ticks down on Sunday night’s U.S. deadline to file the text of a bilateral deal with Mexico. 


“Challenges remain” at the negotiating table, according to a senior source with direct knowledge of the situation.


The prime minister, the foreign affairs minister, and Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. are leading the Canadian negotiations from Ottawa, as the U.S. and Mexican imposed deadline of Sept. 30 at midnight closes in.


Canadian officials met late into the night Saturday, and returned to the office by 7 a.m. Sunday morning, in the hopes of getting to an agreement.


However, one of Donald Trump’s senior advisers is repeating the American threat to move on without Canada, if it will not fall in line by midnight. 


By Monday morning “You’ll have some news one way or the other,” U.S. trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Fox News Sunday morning. 


“Everybody’s negotiating in good faith right now as we speak … So it’s either going to be the text goes in with Mexico and the U.S., or the text goes in with all three countries.”




Things kicked into high gear on Saturday morning when Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland abruptly shifted her UN General Assembly speech to Monday. Officials at Global Affairs confirmed to CBC News that her rescheduling was related to NAFTA talks, and another Canadian official may have to give her Monday speech. 


Significant issues unsolved


Three of the major outstanding issues between Canada and the U.S. in NAFTA talks leading up to this week were Section 232 national security tariffs, NAFTA’s Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism, and regulations around Canada’s dairy sector. 


A bulk of Canada’s efforts this weekend have been focused on securing an exemption to the Section 232 tariffs — especially dealing with autos — which allow President Donald Trump to slap duties on foreign products in the name of national security, a source with direct knowledge of the talks confirmed. 


On top of that, Canada’s 270 per cent tariffs on dairy products that exceed the established quota have long left a sour taste in the president’s mouth. As of Friday night, sources say that dispute has yet to be resolved. 


U.S. dairy farmers are subsidized and create a huge oversupply of milk. 


Watch: Last minute NAFTA talks


Chapter 19, another sore spot, is the dispute mechanism that allows the three countries to challenge each others’ duties in front of a panel comprised of experts from both disputing countries. The U.S. wants to scrap that mechanism. 


Last month, Trump announced his negotiators had reached a bilateral deal with Mexico. He outlined the deadline  — Sept. 30 at midnight — for the text of that deal to be submitted to Congress. Canada would be allowed on board, he explained, but they’d have to agree to the terms spelled out in the bilateral agreement. 


Trump made it clear Canada’s failure to join would be unacceptable, with hefty auto tariffs as a consequence.  


A Mexican intervention?


Mexico’s new president-elect, however, said in an interview Friday that he has agreed to push the American side to make a deal with Canada.


President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked him during a Thursday phone call “to intervene and call on the U.S. government to reach an agreement” with Canada on the renegotiation of NAFTA.


“We agreed to that,” Lopez Obrador told reporters in Mexico City. The president-elect also said he would insist on a trilateral pact.


However, later Friday evening, Lopez Obrador’s Senate leader, Ricardo Monreal, said Mexico wouldn’t walk away from a bilateral agreement. 


“The ideal is a trilateral deal, but we’re prepared for the possible need of a bilateral,” he told Bloomberg News.



Article source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/iraq-army-seizes-town-erbil-fierce-clashes-171020101628079.html

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