US House Speaker Paul Ryan told the NAFTA negotiation parties that May 17 is the deadline for the new NAFTA deal for eventual passage for the current Congress to vote on within this year. Ryan said “We have to have the paper – not just an agreement, we have to have the paper – from USTR by May 17 for us to vote on it this year, in December, in the lame duck”. But later, his spokesman said he referred to a notification of intent to sign the NAFTA agreement, not the full text. The new elected Congress will take office in January.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said after meeting with US legislators that “we are definitely getting closer to the final objective.”
Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said he’ll know by the end of Friday ” if we really have what it takes to be able to land these things in the short run.”
