Nafta Talks Lurch Ahead Without Signs of Major Progress<br />Echoing comments made recently by Vice President Mike Pence, Ms. Freeland said she was confident<br />that the three countries could find a way to reach a deal that is a “win, win, win.”<br />“All three parties are absolutely committed to getting this done,” Ms. Freeland said.<br />12-month moving average<br />Ms. Freeland noted in her closing remarks that Nafta had yielded substantial economic benefits for the United States since it was enacted in 1994 and said<br />that the trade relationship between the United States and Canada was “reciprocal,” a principle that Mr. Trump prizes.<br />After five days of discussions in Mexico City, trade negotiators from the three countries said they were encouraged by the talks’ cooperative tenor<br />and remained confident that they could reach a deal by the end of the year.<br />“Our work continues at a record pace.”<br />In a joint statement, Mr. Lighthizer and his counterparts — Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, and Mexico’s secretary of the economy, Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal — said<br />that they had hashed out new ideas and consolidated existing proposals into a single text that will be the basis for future negotiations.<br />Thus far, Canada and Mexico have made it clear that they will not be cowed by Mr. Trump’s threats to unilaterally scrap the trade agreement, a move<br />that would most likely damage the United States economy.
