Mexico’s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that there is a 50-50 chance that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will be terminated, according to a report this week from The Hill.
Gerónimo Gutiérrez said that, despite tensions and a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the negotiations among the three trading partners, Mexico, the United States and Canada, he thinks that an updated NAFTA agreement can be reached sometime next year.
The United States, Mexico and Canada completed their fifth round of renegotiations last month in Mexico City on the nearly 23-year-old free trade agreement with a number of of issues outstanding. The next round of talks is set for January 23 in Montreal.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement on November 21 after those talks that he remains “concerned about the lack of headway” on the agreement. “Thus far, we have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement,” he said. Absent rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result.”
On Tuesday, President Trump met with six Republican senators at the White House who are urging him to preserve the North American deal. Trump has said repeatedly that the United States has gotten a bad deal in NAFTA and he wants to see more benefits for America, including a decrease in trade deficits. “We’re going to look at NAFTA very seriously,” Trump said.
On the issue of the border wall with Mexico, Gutiérrez reiterated that Mexico will not pay for the cost of construction. “That’s certainly not going to happen,” he said.
The White House is urging Congress to include some funding for a border wall in any year-end spending bill. Gutiérrez suggested a tolling system that would help finance any border infrastructure projects.”There have been preliminary discussions on that matter, and I think both sides are open,” he said.
