Trudeau sees ‘high chance’ of reaching ‘win-win-win’ NAFTA deal

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that there is a “high chance” that the U.S, Mexico and Canada will reach a deal on a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“We have a high chance of reaching a win-win-win deal for Canada, the United States and Mexico,” Trudeau said, according to Agence France-Presse. 

He said that with upcoming elections in the U.S. and Canada later this year, he hoped to announce a deal on NAFTA at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, later this month.

On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that President Trump also hopes to have a preliminary deal ready to announce during the April 13 summit.

{mosads}Trudeau’s remarks came as Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland travels to Washington for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo. The trio is set to hold talks on Friday. 

Trump vowed as a presidential candidate to renegotiate the 24-year-old trade pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, which he has criticized as unfair to the U.S. 

In recent weeks, Trump has tied NAFTA to immigration policy, threatening to cancel the deal if Mexico doesn’t do more to stop those crossing the southern border into the U.S.

Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

Mexico is making a fortune on NAFTA…They have very strong border laws – ours are pathetic. With all of the money they make from the U.S., hopefully they will stop people from coming through their country and into ours, at least until Congress changes our immigration laws!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018

The latest round of NAFTA talks come amid heightened fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China.

The Trump administration unveiled a list of $50 billion worth of Chinese products this week that it plans to hit with tariffs. Beijing responded on Wednesday by threatening to impose tariffs on billions of dollars of American products. 

The tit-for-tat between the U.S. and China has caused markets to slump this week.