The U.S. has “not made the progress that many had hoped” at the conclusion of the seventh round of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Monday, and that time was running out to complete it this year.
“We have closed out only three additional chapters … To complete NAFTA 2.0, we will need agreement on roughly 30 chapters. So far, after seven months, we have completed just six,” he said at the conclusion of the seventh round of talks in Mexico City.
He warned that if progress were not made, the U.S. was prepared to proceed on a bilateral basis, making separate deals with Canada and Mexico.
Lighthizer said negotiators had made progress on issues regarding telecommunication, energy and agricultural sanitation, but that some of the most contentious issues such as the rules of origin for products, digital trade, labor rules, rules of government procurement and the environment remained outstanding.
“Now our time is running very short,” he added, noting that elections were coming up in Mexico and Canada and that the U.S. would have congressional midterm elections later this year. “All of this complicates our efforts. I fear that the longer this takes, the more political headwinds we will face.”
The talks have been rocky, with Canada and Mexico rejecting most U.S. proposals, sparking fears that President Trump would follow through with threats to pull the U.S. out of the deal.
Trump on Monday morning confirmed the widely held presumption that tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports that he announced last week were intended to pressure Canada and Mexico on NAFTA.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland used the conclusion of the talks to state that her country found the tariffs “absolutely unacceptable” and would take “appropriate and responsive measures to defend our trade interests” should the U.S. follow through with them.
Freeland and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo nevertheless tried to put a positive spin on the talks, noting they had made as much progress in the latest round as they had in the previous six.
