AFP, Mexico City :
Mexico and Canada presented the negotiating teams Wednesday that will be tasked with taming US President Donald Trump’s most protectionist instincts as the three countries overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Talks on updating the 23-year-old trade deal, which Trump accuses of hurting American industry, are due to start in Washington on August 16.
Mexico’s negotiating team will be led by US-trained economist Kenneth Smith, who, despite his Anglo Saxon-sounding name, is “super Mexican,” Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo joked with journalists.
Canada’s team will be led by two ex-cabinet ministers drawn from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Conservative rivals: former opposition leader Rona Ambrose and former industry minister James Moore, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced.
The United States had already settled its top negotiator for the talks: US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a free-trade skeptic who has echoed Trump’s vows to seek “a much better deal for all Americans.”
Trump has taken a somewhat softer stance on NAFTA since becoming president, looking to renegotiate the deal rather than tear it up, as he threatened on the campaign trail.
But he jangled nerves in Mexico City and Ottawa last week when he said the US would “terminate” the agreement if it does not get the deal it wants.
Duty-free trade with the world’s largest economy has become a cornerstone of both the Mexican and Canadian economies.
Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and Canada 75 percent.
Guajardo said Mexico would insist on a deal that is beneficial for all three countries.
“Our positions will sometimes be shared and sometimes different. But basically, if we don’t have a vision that this must be something that strengthens the three of us, then there will be no way to conclude such challenging negotiations,” he said.
Mexico and Canada presented the negotiating teams Wednesday that will be tasked with taming US President Donald Trump’s most protectionist instincts as the three countries overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Talks on updating the 23-year-old trade deal, which Trump accuses of hurting American industry, are due to start in Washington on August 16.
Mexico’s negotiating team will be led by US-trained economist Kenneth Smith, who, despite his Anglo Saxon-sounding name, is “super Mexican,” Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo joked with journalists.
Canada’s team will be led by two ex-cabinet ministers drawn from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Conservative rivals: former opposition leader Rona Ambrose and former industry minister James Moore, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced.
The United States had already settled its top negotiator for the talks: US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a free-trade skeptic who has echoed Trump’s vows to seek “a much better deal for all Americans.”
Trump has taken a somewhat softer stance on NAFTA since becoming president, looking to renegotiate the deal rather than tear it up, as he threatened on the campaign trail.
But he jangled nerves in Mexico City and Ottawa last week when he said the US would “terminate” the agreement if it does not get the deal it wants.
Duty-free trade with the world’s largest economy has become a cornerstone of both the Mexican and Canadian economies.
Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and Canada 75 percent.
Guajardo said Mexico would insist on a deal that is beneficial for all three countries.
“Our positions will sometimes be shared and sometimes different. But basically, if we don’t have a vision that this must be something that strengthens the three of us, then there will be no way to conclude such challenging negotiations,” he said.
