Trump to advance trade deal with Mexico after NAFTA talks with Canada falter
WASHINGTON • High-stakes trade negotiations between the White House and Canadian leaders unraveled Friday, amid strains caused by lingering divisions and comments President Donald Trump made that suggested he would refuse to offer concessions.
The breakdown put Trump’s effort to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreement in legal limbo. The White House formally notified Congress on Friday that it will enter into a trade agreement with Mexico. The letter stipulated that Canada could also be added “if it is willing.”
But it is unclear whether a three-nation trade pact can be replaced under congressional rules with a two-nation agreement. White House officials vowed to continue discussions with Canada, and talks are expected to pick back up Wednesday.
“The talks were constructive, and we made progress,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.’
But Trump seemed willing to leave Canada out of a final deal.
“If we don’t make a deal on Canada, that’s fine,” Trump said Friday at an event in Charlotte, N.C.
Sending the letter to Congress on Friday begins a formal 90-day process for reworking the trade deal, a deadline the White House believes is necessary in order to get approval from the outgoing government in Mexico.
The White House’s letter to Congress caps off a chaotic day of posturing and brinksmanship between the U.S. and one of its closest allies. U.S. and Canada appeared to be within striking distance of a deal on Thursday, but a number of key issues remained unsettled.
They couldn’t agree, for example, on U.S. demands over dairy policy, and they also hadn’t reached agreement about patent protection for pharmaceuticals or how to resolve disputes going forward.
Canadian officials felt that the U.S. team wasn’t willing to budge, a sentiment that appeared to be validated on Friday morning after the Toronto Star published off-the-record comments Trump had made one day earlier to Bloomberg. Trump told Bloomberg journalists negotiations to rework NAFTA would only be done on his terms, suggesting he would not offer concessions to Canada.
Trump later confirmed making the comments to Bloomberg, though he complained they were not intended for publication.
“Wow, I made OFF THE RECORD COMMENTS to Bloomberg concerning Canada, and this powerful understanding was BLATANTLY VIOLATED,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Oh well, just more dishonest reporting. I am used to it. At least Canada knows where I stand!”
The Star quoted Trump as saying he was not going to offer Canada concessions. But, Trump said, he couldn’t admit this publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”
The White House wanted a firm commitment from Canada to rework NAFTA by Friday. Freeland said Canadians would not be pushed into a deal that’s not in their interest, asserting the White House needed to soften some of its demands.
“At the end of the day, we are only going to sign a deal that’s good for Canada,” she said.
It couldn’t immediately be learned whether the setbacks would prove temporary or could threaten Trump’s ultimate goal of reworking NAFTA, a core promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Freeland met twice with Lighthizer on Friday. She had a much more subdued tone Friday than in past days, when she has repeatedly said she was “optimistic” about progress. She didn’t use that word on Friday.
“We’re not there yet,” she said during a break from meetings. She said they would meet again later in the day.
When asked if the U.S. was negotiating in “good faith,” Freeland paused for a moment before saying Lighthizer was “working really, really hard.” She did not mention Trump by name.
Canadian officials had expressed frustration that they believed the White House wasn’t willing to budge on a range of demands, including dairy policy, dispute resolution, and the patent protections for pharmaceuticals. Trump’s off-the-record comments, first published in the Star, may have validated their fears, as it suggested Trump was stringing the Canadians along and willing to mock the country to journalists.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks to the media during a break in trade talk negotiations at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)