Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America, Jesus Seade, told reporters Friday that negotiators were dealing with the “last issues” that were holding up passage of President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade and expressed optimism that a deal would soon be reached.
“Everything can be resolved,” Seade, his country’s top trade negotiator, told reporters Friday following a meeting with officials at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office in Washington, according to Reuters.
Earlier in the week, Seade said that protections for biologic drugs were being rolled back as part of the USMCA deal, an apparent compromise that could attract Democratic support at the cost of the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, Mexico pushed back on proposals for more invasive inspections of their factories for labor rights violations, a proposal Seade called a violation of his country’s sovereignty.
House Democrats and Trump administration officials, led by the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, have been negotiating for months to create a compromise version of the USMCA deal. A key remaining issue is ensuring Mexico’s compliance with the deal’s labor rights provisions.
