WASHINGTON — A top Trump administration official said on Sunday that the United States and Canada continued to face differences as negotiators scrambled to reach a deal on a trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement ahead of a midnight deadline. “Everybody’s negotiating in good faith right now as we speak and the deadline is midnight tonight to get the text in to Congress in order to make sure this goes forward,” Mr. Navarro said in an interview with Fox News. “So it’s either going to be the text in with Mexico and the U.S. or the text goes in with all three countries.”Mr. Navarro said that there were “several” sticking points that remain. Industry lobbyists who have been briefed on the negotiations said that one of the biggest obstacles is Canada’s desire to have Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs lifted as part of a new Nafta agreement and to receive assurances that Canada will not face new tariffs on automobiles, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened. In exchange, Canada has expressed openness to offering concessions on access to its dairy market that are more generous than what it offered in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that Mr. Trump withdrew from upon taking office last year.

Source: New York Times September 30, 2018 17:26 UTC