Mexico eyes NAFTA breakthrough this week
04 August, 2018
Mexico’s economy minister said on Friday that Mexico and the United States could overcome key stumbling blocks standing in the way of a new NAFTA deal this week, adding that Canada would likely soon rejoin the negotiations.
Mexican and U.S. teams will work through the weekend to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the ministers will return to the table late next week, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters after meetings with U.S. officials in Washington.
Mexico and the United States resumed talks recently, after a U.S. move to slap tariffs on Mexican and Canadian metal exports and Mexico’s July elections stalled negotiations that began last year when U.S. President Donald Trump demanded a better deal for U.S. workers.
“Technically, we are ready to move into finishing the issues, Mexico-U.S. issues, the most next week. There are very good probabilities that we’ll be landing solutions,” Guajardo said in English.
“We are optimistic that we can try to land a deal before the end of August,” adding there were “three critical, specific points” to resolve that he declined to specify.