SASKATOON — Canada’s negotiating team spent several hours Wednesday updating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the state of NAFTA talks and getting his marching orders for the days ahead. Foreign Affair Minister Chrystia Freeland refused to go into any detail about the issues on which the prime minister needed to sign off or what instructions she and the rest of the NAFTA team received. However, she said lead negotiator Steve Verheul and David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, would be returning to Washington immediately to resume negotiations on Thursday. Freeland herself will not be returning to Washington right away, but said she’ll be keeping in close contact with her American counterpart, trade czar Robert Lighthizer. However, dairy farmers maintain they’ve already made enough concessions and shouldn’t have to do so again to get a NAFTA deal.

Source: National Post September 13, 2018 02:26 UTC