Negotiations for the new NAFTA will resume in late February in Mexico City, with agricultural trade among the undecided issues. Canadian trade groups said there was progress on agricultural biotechnology and on food safety rules during a week of work in Montreal. U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said he hoped for “major breakthroughs” in the interim. “We owe it to our citizens, who are operating in a state of uncertainty, to move much faster.”
The United States wants Canada to phase out its supply management system for dairy, poultry and eggs, Canada has defended its farm supports stoutly. U.S. farm groups are anxious to preserve duty-free access to Canada and Mexico, which generate one-third of U.S. food and ag trade, while gaining expanded access to the markets. The agribusiness and farm sectors opposed loudly President Trump’s suggestions that he might scrap NAFTA.
“We still have a way to go concerning Canada’s tariffs on U.S. dairy imports and want a reduction in – if not complete elimination – of tariffs on dairy, poultry and eggs,” said the American Farm Bureau Federation. Canada made concessions in a trade pact with the EU, said the largest U.S. farm group, so “we need to build on that progress.” Along with dairy and poultry access, negotiators discussed food safety rules. “Standards must be based on science and not wielded as some sort of non-tariff barrier to trade so we’re glad that discussions centered on modernization of those rules.”
The Canadian Produce Marketing Association said it was “optimistic about the sanitary and phytosanitary (food safety) chapter as well as the biotechnology provisions in the agriculture chapter and hopes these will build off of the recent success of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership,” reported iPolitics. The trade group was referring to the so-called “TPP 11” pact announced on the opening day of the Montreal round.
Lighthizer said “some real headway” was achieved in Montreal, most notably agreement on the anti-corruption chapter of NAFTA. “The United States views NAFTA as a very important agreement. We are committed to moving forward. I am hopeful progress will accelerate soon. We will work very hard between now and the beginning of the next round, and we hope for major breakthroughs during that period,” said the lead U.S. negotiator. Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign minister, said months of intensive talks were “begining to bear fruit” and Mexico’s economic minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, said discussions were on the “right track” for success.
The NAFTA calendar calls for an eighth and final negotiating session in Washington in March, which would meet the Trump administration goal of agreement on the new NAFTA months in advance of Mexico’s presidential election on July 1 and U.S. mid-term elections on Nov 6. “Officials are now openly speculating that the bid to salvage the $1.2 trillion free trade pact will continue well beyond the original March deadline as elections loom in Mexico,” said Reuters. The news agency said nine days of talk will begin on Feb. 26 in Mexico City. NAFTA created the world’s largest free trade zone.
To watch a video of closing statements by the trade ministers, click here.