U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that the first round of talks among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement will begin in Washington Aug. 16.
John Melle, assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere, will serve as the administration’s chief negotiator.
The White House officially announced its priorities for renegotiations on Monday, indicating the administration will seek to tweak rather than throw out the deal. Lighthizer said the administration would focus on adding a digital economy chapter, eliminating “unfair subsidies” — a thinly veiled reference to Canadian dairy, poultry, and timber policies — prohibiting duties on digital products such as music and e-books and establishing uniform rules to protect intellectual property, among other goals.
The stated priorities were generally vague, however, drawing a muted response from business and labor groups.
Trump is a long-time critic of NAFTA, having argued that the U.S.’s trading partners have gotten the better end of the deal. In April, he threatened to pull out of NAFTA entirely but was reportedly talked out of it by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Calls from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reportedly played a role.
Canada and Mexico have said that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Trump killed earlier this year, should serve as the jumping off point for the negotiations, a view that Ross also has endorsed.
