The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Feb. 16, edition that Canada and the United States will focus on bilateral negotiations as part of President Donald Trump's pledge to tweak the North American free-trade deal that governs Canadian commerce, leaving Mexico essentially to fend for itself.
The Globe's Robert Fife writes that an unnamed source says the signals coming from Washington are that there will be an American negotiating team dealing with Canada and a separate one for Mexico.
The source says: "We think there are going to be things that they will come to us and get them straightened out and then the Americans can say to the Mexicans, 'We have this negotiated with the Canadians, are you okay with this?' There are things that can only be solved by bilateral negotiations."
Canada, for example, expects to first hammer out an agreement on independent dispute mechanisms -- a key U.S. demand -- with Washington before it is then presented to Mexico.
The source says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not want Canada to be caught at the negotiating table when the Americans go after Mexico for its huge trade surplus with the U.S. and other issues that Mr. Trump campaigned on in the election.
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