The U.S., Mexico and Canada ended the first round of talks on anew North American Free Trade Agreement saying they're committed towrapping up the negotiations quickly with a far-reaching deal.

“While a great deal of effort and negotiation will be requiredin the coming months, Canada, Mexico and the United States arecommitted to an accelerated and comprehensive negotiation processthat will upgrade our agreement and establish 21st centurystandards to the benefit of our citizens,” the countries said in astatement Sunday, after five days of discussions in Washington.

The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Sept. 1-5 inMexico, with talks moving to Canada in late September and back tothe U.S. in October. Additional rounds are being planned “for theremainder of the year,” the countries said.

The joint statement reinforces the notion that the three nationsare seeking a quick deal before politics overtakes the agenda nextyear. Mexico will hold a general election next July, while U.S.congressional midterms are scheduled for November 2018.

The opening round got off to a tense start last week when U.S.Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer served notice that the U.S.wouldn't accept a modest “tweaking” of a trade deal that PresidentDonald Trump believes has failed Americans. While U.S. trade withits Nafta partners has more than tripled since the agreement tookeffect in 1994, Trump blames the pact for gutting U.S.manufacturing and sending factory jobs to Mexico.

Trade experts weren't surprised by the cautious sense ofoptimism in the joint statement.

“Despite good intentions, this Nafta renegotiation may be moreakin to a lengthy process of couples therapy than a quick exercisein speed dating,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow at theWashington-based Peterson Institute of International Economics.

The vagueness and positive tone of the concluding statement leftopen the possibility of the U.S settling its differences withMexico and Canada, said Inu Manak, a visiting scholar at the CatoInstitute in Washington. The challenging part of the negotiationswill come later, when the negotiators turn to sensitive issues suchas dispute-resolution systems and the rules of origin thatdictate local-content requirements in products, she said.

Negotiating groups agreed to provide additional text, commentsor counter-proposals in the next two weeks, according to the jointstatement.

“The scope and volume of proposals during the first round of thenegotiation reflects a commitment from all three countries to anambitious outcome and reaffirms the importance of updating therules governing the world's largest free trade area,” according tothe statement.

Lighthizer said last week the U.S. will seek improvements in anumber of areas, including tighter rules of origin, stronger laborstandards and protections against currency manipulation. Trump hasthreatened to scrap the pact if he can't get the change hefavors.

From: Bloomberg News

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