(Reuters)
MEXICO CITY, July 21 – U.S. and Mexican trade negotiators will meet for a third round of bilateral talks on Tuesday to try to push forward with revising the North American trade agreement, just as President Donald Trump slaps Canada with a new set of punitive duties.
The talks, which exclude Canada, are set to run for three days and are the first formal discussions on changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement since the Trump administration declined to extend the six-year-old regional trade pact on July 1.
The move started a clock to wind down USMCA within 10 years unless the three countries can agree on improvements. Industry groups have urged Trump to keep intact the trilateral structure and largely tariff-free access that underpins nearly $1.6 trillion in annual trade.
Mexico’s new ambassador to the U.S., Roberto Lazzeri, said on Friday that Mexico was expecting to reach a new deal by the end of the year, and that he believes the U.S. and Canada are aiming for the same goal.
“Every moment that we’re losing, I think we are losing competitiveness, market share and investment, so it’s in the best interest of all three of us to get to a position of resolution soon,” said Lazzeri, a former investment banker and finance ministry official.
He added that Mexico shares the Trump administration’s goal of bringing more manufacturing to North America, including to the U.S. Another key goal for Mexico is to win some relief from Trump’s 25% national security tariffs on Mexican autos and 50% on its steel and aluminum products, duties also applied to Canada.
The talks come a day after the Trump administration announced new tariffs on nearly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. autos, steel, aluminum and liquor and its high dairy tariffs.
That move deepens a rift that has kept Canada largely sidelined in the USMCA negotiations, as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said there has been little movement towards concessions.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement that his government had made comprehensive proposals to resolve trade disputes with Washington, adding that Trump’s past tariffs violated the North American trade pact.
