WASHINGTON – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer says NAFTA talks are being extended into 2018 — a tacit admission that negotiators aren’t going to meet their original deadline for a deal by year-end.
The proposals tabled at the latest round have revealed huge chasms in negotiating positions, on everything from dairy and autos to even the basic architecture of an agreement.
The wide differences have dampened expectations of an agreement this year.
Lead ministers Lighthizer, Canada’s Chrystia Freeland and Ildefonso Guajardo made public statements as the week-long round wrapped up in Washington.
Freeland says that the talks have continued to make “significant headway” despite a series of “unconventional proposals” that are making the work that much more difficult.
The U.S. has surprised its neighbours by proposing things like a sunset clause that could end NAFTA in five years, along with plans to gut the agreement’s enforcement mechanisms.
