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Lighthizer rejects Canada’s auto rules-of-origin ideas, laments slow pace of talks

MONTREAL -- U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday closed a sixth NAFTA negotiating round here by roundly rejecting a Canadian auto rules-of-origin proposal and other new ideas advanced by Ottawa, acknowledging some progress in the talks but lamenting their slow pace and stressing the urgency of speeding them up. Lighthizer also blasted Canada’s recent World Trade Organization challenge of U.S. trade remedy laws, suggesting that buying into it would mean “24 years ago the United States effectively gave away...

Trump’s openness to TPP adds new dimension to TPP-11 conclusion efforts

Days after the 11 parties to the new Trans-Pacific Partnership announced they had concluded negotiations for a deal without the U.S, President Trump said he would be open to negotiating some form of multilateral trade agreement with those countries -- adding a new dimension to the countries' goal of signing the TPP-11 in March. Trump, in a Jan. 26 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said “We would consider negotiating with the [TPP countries], either individually, or...

Grassley: ‘America First’ Means a Modernized NAFTA’

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Jan. 26 used an op-ed in the far-right news website Breitbart to emphasize the benefits of NAFTA to U.S. agriculture. “Recent discussions on NAFTA and America’s participation in it have ranged from renegotiating terms to exiting the agreement entirely,” Grassley wrote . “In an 'America First' agenda, withdrawing from NAFTA would be a mistake and cause serious, negative consequences.” Breitbart’s former chairman was Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, who has advocated for “economic...

Reichert: Lighthizer ‘hopeful’ about NAFTA as sixth round nears end

MONTREAL – House Ways & Means trade subcommittee chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA) said on Sunday that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is optimistic about the state of the NAFTA talks after the two met here on the penultimate day of the sixth round of negotiations. “I can’t really speak for the ambassador but I’ll share some words that he described himself. He says he’s a curmudgeon. So when he shows optimism it might not be readily visible to the rest...

Despite Democrats’ hope, USTR has not indicated it will push for NAFTA labor standards that go beyond TPP

MONTREAL -- The U.S. has not tabled a new NAFTA labor proposal that goes beyond an initial offer which largely mirrored what was negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has not indicated it would do so in the talks, a move likely to draw the ire of Democrats and jeopardize their support for a final deal, sources and lawmakers here told Inside U.S. Trade . The U.S. labor negotiating team, these sources said, has not received any political direction from...

NAFTA negotiators close anti-corruption chapter, but progress lags on thorny issues

MONTREAL -- The sixth round of NAFTA negotiations will wrap up Monday with a chapter on anti-corruption closed and significant progress made on several others that have been near completion for months, sources here told Inside U.S. Trade , but the three countries have not made headway on labor and other controversial issues. The chapters on customs, state-owned enterprises, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and digital trade have been close to completion since at least the fifth...

Ahead of State of the Union, GOP senators to urge Trump to advance economy by preserving NAFTA

MONTREAL -- A group of Republican senators will send a letter to President Trump on Monday -- a day before his first State of the Union address -- telling him he must keep NAFTA in place to build on the stock market gains and economic successes the president says have been spurred by tax reform. “Mr. President, your leadership has jump-started our economy. The recent tax reform bill is already leading to economic success across all industries and the stock...

Sources: Next NAFTA round set to begin on Feb. 26 in Mexico City

MONTREAL -- After NAFTA negotiators leave Canada early next week they will convene again for a seventh official round of talks on Feb. 26 in Mexico City, sources here told Inside U.S. Trade. While several negotiating sessions have wrapped up here -- and progress was made in a number of areas -- sources said it was unlikely that any chapters would be completely closed during the sixth round. The three countries are likely to blow past a self-imposed end-of-March...

Documents

Texas governor's letter to Lighthizer urges caution on NAFTA


Trump: U.S. open to a multilateral deal with TPP countries

The U.S. is open to negotiating a multilateral trade deal with Trans-Pacific Partnership countries, President Trump said at the World Economic Forum on Friday. A day after saying he would reconsider TPP if it could be made “ substantially better ,” the president used his speech in Davos, Switzerland, to reiterate familiar trade rhetoric and call again for bilateral deals with Pacific nations – but he acknowledged a willingness to deal multilaterally as well. “The United States is prepared to...

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