President Donald Trump is greeted by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the official welcoming ceremony at the G7 Summit in the Charlevoix town of La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)
National Post: Canada rejected in bid to be part of high-level NAFTA talks between Mexico and U.S.: sources
A source said the U.S. side, fuelled in part by Lighthizer’s dislike of Freeland, has decided to not even let Canada back into the process until it makes a substantive concession.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American officials have taken the “highly unusual” step of rejecting Canada’s bid to take part in senior-level NAFTA talks between the U.S. and Mexico later this week, sources familiar with the trade negotiations said Monday.
One person said attempts by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to get a seat at the table in Washington Thursday were either ignored, or spurned outright by the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Another source said the request to be at the meeting was made in a low-key fashion “so as not to spark a diplomatic incident” and was followed by “a retreat to diplomatic silence.”
Lighthizer is scheduled to meet Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo of Mexico after similar bilateral meetings between the officials last week made significant progress, analysts say.
Canada’s apparent sidelining follows Lighthizer’s recent comments that he hoped to strike a separate deal with Mexico, then use that as pressure to win compromises from Canada.
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WNU Editor: There are many reasons why I do not understand the Canadian NAFTA position (and I live in Canada making a living in understanding these economic trends). But demanding to retain their NAFTA access to the U.S. market while simultaneously retaining their ability to broker imported Chinese goods while the U.S. is in the middle of a trade war with China does not make sense to me. Nor does it make sense that Canada's manufacturing base be sacrificed to accommodate Chinese demands that their goods can enter Canada at the rate they are entering now. But such is the position that Canada is taking, and the media/political establishment/and business community is all in favor of it. My prediction .... Canada is going to be burned bad if this continues. As for Mexico .... they want a deal now, and they are probably going to get it.