Mexico is set to propose senior trade official Jesus Seade, who helped rework the North American Free Trade Agreement, as a candidate to be the next director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), government sources said.
The United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade deal on Thursday that includes tougher labor and automotive content rules but leaves US$1.2 trillion in annual United States-Mexico-Canada trade flows largely unchanged.
The leader of a U.S. congressional delegation to Mexico said that Mexico must take more concrete steps to implement its labor reform, after a trip aimed at speeding up ratification of the new North American free trade deal.
After 14 months of talks between the United States and its closest allies, President Donald Trump celebrated the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a new trade agreement that is poised to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The US dollar slipped against the Canadian dollar on Monday as the United States and Canada reached a framework deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement. The deal reached involves offering more dairy access to U.S. farmers as well as Canada agreeing to a side-letter arrangement effectively capping automobile exports to the United States.
The leaders of the United States and Canada expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could reach new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline as negotiators prepared to talk through the night, although Canada warned that a number of tricky issues remained.
The ministers leading the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could meet again on Thursday in Washington as they push for quick progress, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo advanced. Guajardo said he had spoken to Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday and would talk to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to see about agreeing a trilateral meeting in Washington on Thursday.
Some countries are now likely to be spared from planned tariffs on metals advocated by U.S. President Donald Trump. White House sources said Trump's controversial tariff plan could be put into action at a signing ceremony on Thursday afternoon.
Mexican buyers imported ten times more corn from Brazil last year amid concern that NAFTA renegotiations could disrupt their U.S. supplies, according to government data and top grains merchants. Mexico is on track to buy more Brazilian corn in 2018, which would hurt a U.S. agricultural sector already struggling with low grains prices and the rising competitive threat from South America.
The Canadian government plans to open free trade talks with the four-nation Mercosur trading bloc in South America at a time when the future of NAFTA is facing increasing uncertainty. Canada sends around 75% of its goods exports to the United States and is looking for new markets to reduce the reliance on its southern neighbor.