Canada, Emphasizing Its History of Neighborly Support, Resumes High-Level NAFTA Negotiations

Canada continues to avoid characterizing how close it is to reaching an agreement on NAFTA with the U.S., and Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland sought to both downplay the significance of her return to Washington for just one day and to point to it as a sign of her deep commitment to reaching a deal.

When a reporter asked if her trip was needed because technical staff cannot handle the sticking points in negotiations, Freeland answered, "We really feel we're in a continuous negotiation phase. Even when we are not meeting face-to-face, officials are in extremely close contact, and we're talking a lot with one another." But she also said "Canada is here today because this is a really important negotiation for us. We have committed to Canadians that we are going to work really, really hard on these negotiations. I understand personally how focused Canadians are on this negotiation."

Freeland, who was speaking to reporters outside the headquarters of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after a three-hour morning meeting on Sept. 11, said that "both sides did a lot of thinking over the weekend."

Also over the weekend, Agriculture Sonny Perdue did an interview on C-SPAN in which he talked about what dairy concessions would be needed from Canada in order for the U.S. to reach a NAFTA deal. "Class 7 has to go. It can’t be renamed something or called something else," he said. Class 7 was a change to the dairy quota system that meant Wisconsin and New York farmers could no longer sell ultra-filtered milk to cheesemakers in Canada. Perdue described the status of U.S.- Canada talks as "on the edge." He said he believes Canada will bend on Class 7. "I had a visit with the premier of Quebec and we had a very frank discussion. But the next day he came out and understood they have to make some concessions there." Perdue said the administration's intention is to restore agricultural benefits of NAFTA "and then turn our attention to others."

He noted that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer went to Brussels on Sept. 10 to talk about trade with the European Union. The EU has said that agriculture will not be part of trade talks, but Perdue and Lighthizer said agriculture should be part of a trade deal. "You know they've been rather intransigent about protectionism in the EU," Perdue said.