Canada and Mexico will NOT make counterproposals

When trying to come to an agreement between the three countries, Canada and Mexico have recently stated that they will not make counter-proposals to the United States's demands for tougher NAFTA automotive rules and agreements, but instead, the two countries will look at offering a rebuttal. Canada is arguing that the new U.S. demands would cause more harm than good to the North American automotive manufacturing. Flavio Volpe, president of Canada's Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, said the U.S. proposal would damage North American competitiveness and lead to fewer auto assembly and parts job on the continent. 

The rebuttal to the U.S. demands is expected to come on Monday as negotiations continue on to the fifth round of talks. Click HERE to read more about possible consequences and responses to the United State's demands.

Source:

Lawder, David, and Sharay Angulo. "Canada, Mexico to question U.S. auto content demands at NAFTA talks." Reuters, 20 Nov. 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/canada-mexico-to-question-u-s-auto-content-demands-at-nafta-talks-idUSKBN1DK0E9. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.

Both parties to to keep NAFTA alive

With NAFTA’s continuously unstable nature recently, spokesmen from both the democratic and republican parties are beginning to put their differences aside in an effort to keep NAFTA intact. Texas senator Ted Cruz spoke about the consequences of losing NAFTA claiming that hundreds of thousands of Texan jobs are dependent on its continued existence. Beto O’Rourke, a Texas democratic representative, has spoken with a similar message to Trump’s advisees saying that walking away from Americas most important trade deal is not outweighed by the improvements that need to be put into place.(Andrea Drusch, 2017) To read the read more click HERE.

Works Cited

Andrea Drusch. (2017). NAFTA negotiations: Cruz, O’Rourke take on their own parties on trade | The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article183259656.html

Increase of U.S. Trade Deficit

According to John Brinkley in an article titled NAFTA Withdrawl Would Increase, Not Lower, U.S. Trade Deficit with Mexico, if President Trump withdraws from the NAFTA agreement, the United States trade deficit with Mexico will increase. Without NAFTA, the three parties will revert to the WTO, which means each country must agree to limit its tariffs to a certain level. Currently, the United States' average applied tariff with Mexico is 4.5% while countries that have no free trade agreement is only at 2.8%. If the agreement fails to continue, tariffs must be raised equally around the entire world.
You can read more about how the NAFTA withdrawal will increase the United State's trade deficit with Mexico HERE.

Source:
Brinkley, John. "NAFTA Withdrawal Would Increase, Not Lower, U.S. Trade Deficit With Mexico." Forbes, 2 Nov. 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2017/11/02/nafta-withdrawal-would-increase-not-lower-u-s-trade-deficit-with-mexico/#2ecaf6023d99. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

Prepping for possible NAFTA dissolution

Though the negotiations are back in in US’s hands to make the next move, with the way the last round of talks went, Canada has been looking to deepen trade agreements with the Pacific Alliance members. When President Trump threatened to leave NAFTA after the offered negotiations were rejected, Canada began discussing with officials in Peru and Chile. Canada already has free trade deals with these countries, but since the US is Canada’s top trading partner, losing NAFTA would force Canada to find stronger and more reliable trade, or suffer the consequences. With the looming threat of NAFTA’s possible dissolution, Mexico has also began looking at other trade options. One option currently being explored lies in the EU. To read the full article read HERE

Source:

Patrick Gillespie. (2017). Canada and Mexico prepare for life without NAFTA - Oct. 24, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/24/news/economy/canada-nafta/index.html

Rejection to US NAFTA Proposal

As discussed in the previous blog post, last week, U.S. negotiators formally put forth demands that a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico must favor American manufacturing and expire after five years if all parties do not renew it. Although Canada and Mexico are opposed to the United States negotiations, they say that they will not walk away from the negotiating table.
Now that Canada and Mexico rejected the fourth proposal, it leaves the ball in the United States court to decide how to proceed with negotiations. President Donald Trump has slammed the agreement in the past and recently threatened to scrap the free trade agreement between the countries if they cannot strike a deal. The three countries are pushing to meet a year-end deadline for the agreement. You can read more about the rejection HERE

Source:
Tausche, K., & Pramuk, J. (2017, October 10). Canada, Mexico to firmly reject US NAFTA proposals but will offer to keep negotiations going: Sources. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/canada-mexico-to-firmly-reject-us-nafta-proposals-but-will-offer-to-keep-negotiations-going-sources.html

Leading into the 4th NAFTA meeting

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday October 11, NAFTA's 4th round of meetings will take place. As we move towards this final round, tensions continue to rise over what the final word will be on NAFTA’s condition. The Trump administration has indicated that some of their negotiation points involve a percentage of car parts imported to US that must be made of US materials/labor, and abolishing the trade agreement in 5 years unless all countries agree to its continuance. These types of points, as well as the president’s previous criticisms of the trade agreement, have many wondering what the future holds, or if there is a future for, NAFTA. To read more click HERE.

Source:
Trump’s moves on NAFTA risk massive damage - The Washington Post. (2017, October 10). Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-moves-on-nafta-risk-massive-damage/2017/10/10/5cbbbf34-ad30-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.34a030bdf9cd

Renegotiating NAFTA

Over the past six weeks, The United States, Canada, and Mexico, the three countries apart of NAFTA, have come together to renegotiate the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Although in the current state of the negotiation all teams refuse to release too much information which could potentially weaken their position in the deal, there are a few public statements that were released about the progress and goals. The publicized key terms that are being renegotiated include: modernizing the trade pact, invigorating American manufacturing, settling trade disputes, protecting workers, and  a clause in which would terminate the agreement after five years unless all three countries voted to continue it.

Many people have different visions of what the renegotiated NAFTA deal will look like, and it starts with whether or not they should scrap it and start fresh or just modify and modernize the trade pact. Much of the modernization of the trade pact include setting new regulations on digital trade and making sure regulations are up to date. One of the main accomplishments for the three countries is to modernize regulations over small businesses. The goal of this measure is to help small-business owners achieve access to each others' market and set up trilateral communication. Further information about the modernization of the deal can be seen and read HERE.

When renegotiating NAFTA, reinvigorating American manufacturing is one of the biggest goals. Doing so will help create more jobs for virtually everyone part of the trade deal. The United States have talked about raising the rules of origin. This means increasing the level of a good that must be produced in North America in order to qualify for zero tariffs. Like previously stated, the terms and agreements to the new contract is still being negotiated and provisions are still being made. You can find more information about invigorating American manufacturing HERE.

HERE is a well written article that explains more about the publicized terms that are being renegotiated in the NAFTA agreement.

Source:

Swanson, Ana. "How the Trump Administration Is Doing Renegotiating Nafta." The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2017, ...https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/business/how-the-trump-administration-is-doing-renegotiating-nafta.html. ...Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.