The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that unnamed sources say hopes for quickly resuming North American free-trade agreement talks following Mexico's election this month may prove unrealistic due to scheduling conflicts for the top negotiators.
A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post reports that
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexico's Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarrea and United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer have full schedules this month.
Mr. Lighthizer is set to go on vacation through July 22, while Ms. Freeland is in Europe this week.
When Mr. Lighthizer returns, Mr. Guajardo will be at a Latin American trade summit.
NAFTA talks reached an impasse in May after Mr. Lighthizer said Mexico's pledges of flexibility over automotive wages and content were not enough.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau then said that a planned meeting with President Donald Trump to potentially seal a NAFTA deal collapsed after the U.S. insisted the meeting was conditional on adding an automatic termination clause.
Time is now running out to meet Ms. Freeland's promise that negotiators would "make a real push over the summer," though they could still meet in August.
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