NAFTA Talks to Redraft Tripartite Trade Agreement Starts August 16th

• July 21, 2017
• By Pete Nisbet
• 0

The NAFTA talks between the US, Canada and Mexico start on August 16 in Washington. The talks are intended to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreement and are scheduled to run four days until the 20^th August. John Melle, Assistant US representative for the Western Hemisphere will lead the US delegation.

NAFTA Talks at 3-Week Intervals

Seven rounds of talks have been planned to take place at three-week intervals. US, Canadian and Mexican officials hope to come up with an agreement suitable to all parties. The frequency was set to ensure that the discussions would come up with a quick revamp agreeable to the three countries. Failing that, it could be abandoned.

President Donald Trump was largely responsible for the renegotiation of NAFTA. He had threatened to leave the agreement if it could not be renegotiated to the benefit of the USA. He has claimed that the agreement as it stands has cost the US thousands of jobs and created a trade deficit with Mexico.

 NAFTA Talks Completed Before Mexico Presidential Election

The reason given for the schedule was that it has to be completed by early 2018, well before the commencement of Mexico’s presidential election in July of that year. There would be the possibility of the talks to be politicized should they run much longer. The three countries have agreed on the three-week timetable largely because of this. The Mexican officials preferred the NAFTA talks to be completed before the election campaign got significantly advanced.

Over a trillion dollars of trade between the three countries are involved. According to American administration officials, it was Mexican delegates that requested the timetable be so short. It was not confirmed whether the timetable has been agreed by all three parties.

No Deadline Set for NAFTA Talks

Robert Lighthizer, Donald Trump’s trade representative, has stated that it was hoped to complete the negotiations by the end of this year. That is to avoid any possible interference by or with the Mexican presidential election. However, he did note that he was not prepared to accept any deadline for the completion of the negotiations.

Lighthizer has previously stated that he would not come to any hasty ‘bad’ agreement just to save time. Should a revised agreement not be made, it is highly possible that Donald Trump will pull the US from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The question is, would he go so far as to take such a drastic step?