Canada's Freeland Headed To Washington For More Trade Talks

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was to return to Washington on Tuesday for more high-level continental trade talks with her counterpart US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Ottawa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Sep, 2018 ) :Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was to return to Washington on Tuesday for more high-level continental trade talks with her counterpart US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

She is set to leave Ottawa in the evening, according to her office, but the timing of her meeting with Lighthizer -- likely on Wednesday -- was not yet decided.

Freeland had left the US capital last week after a round of tense talks, saying a deal to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was "eminently possible." But stumbling blocks remained, including over Canada's protected dairy sector and cultural subsidies, as well as its demands for an international system for resolving disputes.

In an interview with MacLean's magazine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday: "Every time we get momentum, every time we work together, we do knock off a few more things and move closer to an eventual decision point.

"We're not there yet," he said, while hinting that a deal could be "days or weeks away." "If there's a good deal to be had for Canada, which I think there is, then we will look to sign it.

If it's not the right deal for Canada we won't sign it," Trudeau told the magazine.

The Canadian negotiating team, which Freeland leads, has continued discussions with the Americans in her absence.

Freeland has been in contact with Lighthizer during this "intensive phase of the negotiations," she said Monday.

Negotiations to modernize the 1994 accord between Canada, the United States and Mexico started a year ago at the behest of US President Donald Trump, who called it "one of the worst trade deals in history" for sending many manufacturing jobs -- notably in the auto sector -- to Mexico.

The US and Mexico sealed their own two-way deal at the end of August, and Trump has since then ramped up pressure on Canada to accept his terms.

But Ottawa has seemed reluctant to heed the US president's push to sign a deal well before US midterm elections in November and the transfer of power to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador the following month -- as Trudeau's Liberals also need a win to show voters when they return to the polls in one year.