Fact-finding major goal for Canada at between-round NAFTA talks this week
Posted Dec 11, 2017 01:00:21 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WASHINGTON – Canada’s NAFTA negotiators are on a fact-finding mission this week in Washington.
Officials from the three NAFTA countries will be gathering at a downtown hotel for a week of meetings between formal rounds.
Canadian officials say the plan is to seek out areas for potential compromise in the new year on tougher issues, like auto parts.
One says the Canadian team will try learning more about what the U.S. hopes to achieve, and see whether there might be creative pathways there that all countries can live with.
Several of the toughest issues have seen early impasses: they include auto parts, agriculture, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. Canada and Mexico have described some U.S. proposals as non-starters, frustrating some U.S. officials by refusing to make counter-offers so far.
The Canadians say counter-offers on the hardest issues are not likely happening this week, but they do expect to complete or nearly complete more of the non-controversial chapters, setting the stage for tougher haggling in early 2018.
