The ministers leading NAFTA negotiations wrapped up the latest round of high-level talks after Canada and Mexico rejected what they see as hardline proposals by the U.S.
This story by Bloomberg appeared in Automotive News.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland met in Washington on Tuesday as battle lines formed around contentious U.S. proposals to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trade representatives from the three countries agreed Tuesday to extend talks to retool NAFTA into the first quarter of 2018. The talks had been scheduled to conclude this year, but the three sides remain far apart on key issues.
President Donald Trump has called NAFTA a disaster and repeatedly threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, a step the White House can set into motion by giving six-months’ notice to its trading partners. At stake is the $1.2 trillion in annual trade between the three countries, as well as the business models of companies such as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors that have adapted their supply chains to take advantage of the trade zone.
The increasingly tense tone of talks has fueled speculation that Trump will make good on threats and walk away. Declines in the Mexican and Canadian currencies are among the biggest of major world currencies in the past month on concerns that an end to NAFTA could crimp economic growth.