As reported by Bloomberg, unnamed sources close to the talks reveal that the US is ‘confident’ that a deal will be reached between Canada, Mexico, and the US before a US-imposed deadline of midnight Sunday.
Key highlights
The US and Canada are working down to the last few sticking points, including increasing US access to Canadian dairy markets, though US confidence in reaching a deal by the deadline is not being echoed by Canadian representatives, with Canada’s Washington ambassador David MacNaughton cooling expectations, agreeing that talks are getting close but they’re “not there yet”, and the ambassador remains skeptical that a full deal will be reached by the Sunday deadline.
Trade representatives have been hammering out details over the entire weekend, working around-the-clock to reach a workable deal with both sides, and sources familiar with the matters have attributed any progress towards a deal to Trump’ss own senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who stepped in when talks fall apart earlier in the year to keep back channels open and keep talks going between US personnel and aides close to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Talks hit a wall after US President Trump threatened to drop the trilateral nature of NAFTA if Canada didn’t make key concessions to get brought on-board with the deal that has been reached between the US and Mexico.
U.S. lawmakers and business have urged the administration to keep Canada in the deal but the trilateral nature had been in jeopardy after Trump on Aug. 27 announced he reached a deal with Mexico that Canada could join if it’s willing to make concessions. They agreed to publish the text by the end of September. – Bloomberg
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