Canada and the US will restart high-level trade talks in Washington today. Whether it’s still NAFTA or not, the two sides reached a deadlock in three key issues, Canadian dairy market access, cultural exemption for Canada and Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism. Not much news is released regarding the discussions as both sides agreed not to negotiate in public.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just reiterated yesterday that “we continue to work hard and we are positively optimistic that we can get a win-win-win for all three countries.” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, who’ll be in Washington today, said last week that the negotiation has entered into a “very intense phase” and the officials have been working 24-7.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer just finished a meeting with European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom in Brussels yesterday. Malmstrom said in a tweet that “Lighthizer discussed how the EU-US achieves concrete results in the short to medium term towards a free trade agreement.” And they’ll meet again at the end of September.
Lighthizer’s office described the talks as constructive. Also, work would be done in October to identify tariff and non-tariff barriers that could be cut. And trade chiefs of EU and US will follow up in November to finalize certain results.
