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LatinNews Regional Monitor: Mexico - 27 September 2018
In brief: Mexico
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said that the US government does not plan to extend the 30 September deadline it has set for Canada to subscribe to the new terms for the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) that it has agreed with Mexico, and that if Canada does not adhere to the deal then the US will conclude a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico. Such an outcome would effectively terminate Nafta as a trilateral deal and leave Canada without a trade agreement with its North American neighbours [albeit both Mexico and Canada are signatories of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) regional trade agreement]. US and Canadian government delegations have been discussing Canada’s subscription to the deal but with the deadline set by the US before it sends the agreement reached with Mexico to the US Congress for approval approaching, Canada has yet to agree to the deal. However, Lighthizer ruled out extending the deadline arguing that it had been set to accommodate the fact that Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto leaves office on 30 November and the US government wants to have a deal in place before the change in government in Mexico. “If we push it beyond that date, then we have a new negotiation with López Obrador and we don’t know where that would go at all”, Lighthizer said referring to Mexico's President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
