Skip to content

Trudeau affirms importance of NAFTA amid rumbling of U.S.-Mexico deal

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is still pushing for a three-country North American Free Trade Agreement despite rumblings of a bilateral deal between the United States and Mexico.
12813309_web1_chy102488208

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is still pushing for a three-country North American Free Trade Agreement despite rumblings of a bilateral deal between the United States and Mexico.

Trudeau says today that NAFTA remains the best option for ensuring prosperity for workers in all three countries.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue both said earlier this week that a deal with Mexico could come first, before one with Canada is struck.

Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy secretary, told a radio station this week that he will be in Washington next Thursday to resume NAFTA talks with U.S. officials.

Trudeau says discussions with the U.S. and Mexico are continuing but he did not elaborate, and officials say there is no immediate plan for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland to travel to Washington next week.

Freeland’s office says she and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, as well as new International Trade Minister Jim Carr, will visit Mexico City on Wednesday to meet Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and his team.