NAFTA Trade Partners Are Beginning To Talk Terms

The U.S. is pushing for a breakthrough on its touchiest Nafta proposals within a month, underscoring the fragility of the new mood of optimism after Canada and Mexico came forward with fresh ideas.

“My hope is that we start seeing some breakthroughs between now and the next round,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters Monday in Montreal, after the sixth session of talks to rework the new North American Free Trade Agreement. The next round will take place in Mexico in late-February.

Trade experts had framed the Montreal round as pivotal, with the U.S. putting pressure on Canada and Mexico to respond to proposals designed to shrink the American trade deficit. While Lighthizer said there were signs of progress, he made it clear the U.S. wants to see more movement from its trading partners in the next few weeks.

Read Article

TheSteve - 1/30/2018 2:59:10 PM

-1 Boost

For the most part, Canada needs good US relations more than the US need good Canadian relations. There are some exceptions, however. For example, the US gets more oil from Canada than any other nation. And maple syrup. The Canucks practically own that market ;-)

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 1/30/2018 7:10:49 PM

0 Boost

@TheSteve. The largest producers of Maple syrup by region (state or province) and according to the volume produced are the following:

Quebec (7.9M Gal - supplying 70% of the world's maple syrup)
Vermont
Ontario
New York
Maine

The maple syrup in my fridge is from Quebec. :)

xjug1987a - 1/30/2018 3:35:40 PM

+3 Boost

We don’t need Canadian oil but perhaps timber....

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 1/30/2018 6:34:46 PM

-1 Boost

@xjug - 43% of all imported oil into the USA comes from Canada. #books

CANADIANCOMMENTS - 1/30/2018 6:37:25 PM

-1 Boost

It is good they are now thinking a bit more deeply about what goes into a car. Before this round of talks, nobody was taking into account the value of software that is in a modern car and using that to add up to NA content. This was a new proposal from the Canadian team and I would think should be adopted as advanced driver aids and autonomous features are not cheap to develop and account for a good % of the value in a new car.

qwertyfla1 - 2/1/2018 8:26:15 AM

+1 Boost

Murica may not need Canuck crude but they want it as it is priced $20 below Brent Sweet Crude so it represents a massive profit center for the refineries that refine it and pump it to Houston and other far off locals.

Only Cana-duh would be so stupid that we give away our Bitumen to our Yank neighbors but we import all our Oil for Eastern Canada from asshole terrorsit "SHITHOLES" and dickhead OPEC countries so we financially support global terrorism. But this is what Mohamed Trudeau wants as we cant have no pipelines creating well paying jobs in our country.

The US doesn't need Canada. All they have to do is cancel NAFTA and 50% of the big Canadian manufacturers left in this SHITHOLE would simply move production and jobs to the US to get around tarrifs and serve a market 10X bigger than Commy Canada. Just as soon as I can sell my property I'm out of here to help MAGA.