President Donald Trump’s administration will almost certainly fail to meet this weekend’s deadline for including Canada in a new North American trade agreement, The Washington Post reports.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Tuesday that negotiators are “sort of running out of time” to include Canada in the trade deal that the U.S. made with Mexico last month. The administration is looking to inform Congress of a plan for a new North American trade agreement by Sunday, which would allow Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to sign it on November 30, his last day in office.
“There’s still a fair amount of distance between us. There are very large issues,” Lighthizer said at the Concordia policy summit in New York.
“If Canada comes along later, then that’s what will happen,” he added, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“Canada’s not making concessions in areas we think are essential,” Lighthizer continued. “Canada would like to be in the agreement.”
The Trade Representative is supposed to meet with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland sometime during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, but an unnamed senior administration official said that chances of a last-minute deal are slim.
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