Nafta talks continue

“I think we've made a lot of progress,” said Juan Pablo Castañon, head of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (CCE), which represented Mexico's private sector during the trade talks. Castañon highlighted advances in energy, telecommunications, investment, as well as improving conditions for small-and-medium-sized firms and streamlining the customs procedures. He was talking to reporters near the close of the fourth day of a second round of negotiations to modernize the 23-year-old trade accord that underpins more than US$1.2 trillion in annual trade. The round is set to wrap on Tuesday in Mexico City. The optimism stands in contrast to comments from US President Donald Trump last week, who said he could move to withdraw from Nafta if he does not get concessions to reduce a US trade deficit of around US$64 billion with Mexico. Castañon said talks on the automotive sector, labour and dispute resolution mechanisms were among the areas least advanced in the negotiations so far. Those issues remain some of the toughest sticking points on which to broker consensus and all three countries have previously flagged they could walk away from the table without any resolution on such matters. Free-trade negotiations often take years to conclude, but delegates in the new round of Nafta dialogs are seeking to finish the current talks over a very tight timeframe. Negotiators aim to end the talks before Mexico's presidential election campaign begins in earnest next year and the US mid-term elections later in 2018. The next round of talks will start on September 24 in Ottawa, said Castañon. So far talks have largely focused on proposing preferred language for less controversial areas, such as digital and cross-border services trade, according to government officials and industry representatives briefed. But negotiators have not started banging out the wording for more controversial subjects, including rules of origin and dispute resolution mechanisms. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are scheduled to hold a joint news conference after talks conclude.– Nampa/Reuters

Nafta talks continue

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Nafta talks continue

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