Non-U.S. Nafta Negotiators Seek Compromise in Montreal
January 23 2018 - 5:49PM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Vieira
MONTREAL -- The chief negotiators for Canada and Mexico on
Tuesday vowed flexibility and cooperation in trying to address the
toughest U.S. demands for a renegotiated North American Free Trade
Agreement.
They said they hoped to make progress at this sixth round of
Nafta talks, which formally opened at a downtown hotel in Canada's
second-largest city. After a contentious stalemate in the fall, the
Montreal talks are widely seen as a make-or-break moment for the
trade pact.
U.S. President Donald Trump said at an event in Washington on
Tuesday that Nafta talks were "moving along pretty well," but
reiterated he was prepared to terminate the pact if negotiations
falter. "We'll see how it works out," he said.
Canadian and Mexican officials in Montreal said they were ready
to finalize chapters on the trade pact's least controversial
elements, such as telecommunications and anticorruption measures,
while laying the ground work on compromise with the U.S. on the
thorniest issues.
"We have to come Montreal with a lot of new ideas and creative
strategies to bridge some of the gaps. We have high hopes for
making progress but of course it depends on the other partners as
well," Steve Verheul, Canada's chief Nafta negotiator, told
reporters.
Mr. Verheul said Canada was bringing new proposals to address
the auto sector, where the U.S. is taking a harder line.
The Trump administration has proposed that to qualify for
duty-free trade among the three countries, North American-made
light vehicles must have regional content of 85%, up from the
current 62.5%, and that at least half of the parts be U.S.-made.
Canada and Mexico oppose these changes.
Mr. Verheul said Canada wouldn't be introducing a formal
counterproposal to the U.S. demand. Instead, he said, Canada would
advance ideas meant to generate a discussion and possibly create a
path toward compromise. Mexican officials signaled a similar
strategy ahead of the Montreal talks.
"We are hoping when we are bringing flexibility to the table, we
will see that reciprocated on the other side," Mr. Verheul said. He
later warned: "If concessions of interest to us are either being
withdrawn or not provided in this negotiation, we are hardly going
to show flexibility."
Kenneth Smith Ramos, Mexico's chief negotiator, said all three
countries were working constructively toward modernizing Nafta. "We
are moving ambitiously on the trade agenda," he said.
At Davos, Switzerland, Mexico Economy Minister Ildefonso
Guajardo told attendees at the World Economic Forum he envisaged
the U.S. midterm elections in November as the target deadline for a
Nafta deal.
The start of this Nafta round coincided with an announcement
from Tokyo that 11 Pacific Rim countries reached an agreement on
the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Canada and Mexico are
signatories, and Mr. Smith said the TPP deal shows the two
countries can work together on the trade front. The U.S. was part
of TPP until Mr. Trump withdraw from the pact last year.
U.S. lawmakers are set to visit the talks over the weekend. On
Tuesday more than 180 House Democrats called on U.S. trade
representative Robert Lighthizer in a letter to push for "strong,
clear and binding provisions that address Mexico's labor
conditions."
--William Mauldin contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 23, 2018 17:34 ET (22:34 GMT)
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