President Trump signaled Tuesday that the U.S. is making progress in talks with Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, and said he still wants to sew up a few more issues before reaching a deal.
“We’re doing very nicely with NAFTA,” Trump told reporters during a White House meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. “I could have a deal very quickly but I am not sure that that is in our best interests.”
Trump’s comments echoes others made by negotiators involved in updating the 1993 trade deal. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Friday, “We are certainly in a more intense period of the negotiations and we are making good progress.”
Freeland, U.S. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economic Minister Ildefonso Guajardo have been holding talks in Washington, D.C.
The administration is preparing for a possible vote a new NAFTA deal this summer, and White House officials nave been briefing congressional staff in preparation for a vote. The White House is under pressure to hold a vote before July 1, when trade promotion authority, a law gives the administration the right to negotiate a deal that Congress can’t amend, is set to expire.
