WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on U.S.-Canada talks on a revamped version of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
4:38 p.m.
Canada’s top trade negotiator, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, is expressing confidence that Canada can reach a deal with the United States on a revamped North American trade agreement that could please all sides.
“We know a win-win-win agreement is within reach,” Freeland tells reporters after talks with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer broke up Friday. They are set to resume Wednesday.
The talks were overshadowed by reports that President Donald Trump had boasted in an interview with Bloomberg News that he wouldn’t offer Canada any compromise. Freeland brushed off the controversy.
“My negotiating counterparty is Ambassador Lighthizer,” she says. “He has brought good faith and good will to the table.”
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4:08 p.m.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer says President Donald Trump has notified Congress that he plans to sign a trade agreement with Mexico - and Canada, if it is willing - in 90 days.
U.S. trade talks with Canada that were being held in Washington broke up Friday afternoon but will resume Wednesday, Lighthizer says.
The talks are aimed at bringing Canada into a new trade accord that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. The flurry of events followed a preliminary agreement that the United States and Mexico reached Monday to replace NAFTA with an arrangement that is intended, among other things, to shift more auto manufacturing to the United States.
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