Canada’s Freeland Pledges Hard Work on NAFTA

Canada’s foreign minister has pledged North American Free Trade Agreement talks will continue into the summer.

The assurance from Chrystia Freeland came after a face-to-face meeting in Washington with the Trump administration’s chief trade envoy, Robert Lighthizer, last week—less than a week after a Group of Seven summit in Quebec.

Along with the G-7 tumult, the U.S. decision to extend steel and aluminum tariffs to include Canada, the European Union and Mexico—and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs that will take effect July 1—have complicated NAFTA talks.

“All three countries are clear that meaningful progress has been made to date and we need to keep working hard to get to a deal on a modernized NAFTA,” Freeland said after meeting with Lighthizer.

At a closed-door meeting last week with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Freeland expressed gratitude toward Americans but also pain over the tariff tensions with the U.S.

Asked for her opinion on reaching a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Canada—an idea Trump has floated—Freeland said it would be hard to implement.

Source: Wall Street Journal