NAFTA talks resume amid fears of 'zombie' accord
WASHINGTON - Senior officials from Canada, the United States and Mexico were trying to rescue slow-moving talks to update the NAFTA trade pact met on Monday in a new bid to resolve key issues before regional elections complicate the process.
With time fast running out to strike some kind of deal on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the three member nations are still far apart on major points.
Discussions in Washington will center on one particularly contentious area - the US demand for tougher rules of origin governing what percentage of a car needs to be built in the NAFTA region to avoid tariffs.
Other challenges include the future of the pact's dispute-resolution mechanism and a US proposal for a sunset clause that could automatically kill the deal after five years.
"We will be working all week on this," Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters after talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
Sources close to the talks suggest there is a creeping feeling of pessimism going into the new round of negotiations because of gridlock on critical matters.
Guajardo earlier told El Heraldo newspaper that if a deal could not be reached, "we would be operating what some analysts have called 'Zombie NAFTA'... (one) that isn't dead and isn't modernized".
Business executives complain that uncertainty over the future of the 1994 agreement is hurting investment.
Lighthizer said last week that if the talks took too long, approval by the Republican-controlled US Congress may be on "thin ice". The aim is to complete a vote during the "lame-duck" period before a new Congress is seated after November's congressional elections.
Mexico holds its presidential election on July 1 and the front-runner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, says he wants a hand in redrafting NAFTA if he wins.
At the heart of the NAFTA revamp is US President Donald Trump's desire to retool rules for the automotive sector in order to try to bring jobs and investment back north from lower-cost Mexico.
Mexico's main auto sector lobby has described the latest US demands, which include raising the North American content to 75 percent from the current 62.5 percent over a period of four years for light vehicles, as "not acceptable".
Reuters
(China Daily 05/09/2018 page12)
