President Donald Trump
suggested that the deadline for renegotiating the North American Free Trade
Agreement might need to be extended. A Reuters report says Canada is agreeable
to the idea. Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “a lot of
things are hard to negotiate” as the Mexican presidential election is coming up
in July. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke to reporters during
a Cabinet retreat, saying, “I think that was a sensible suggestion from the
President. I think all of us are mindful of the Mexican election.” Talks on
updating the agreement are scheduled to conclude by the end of March. However,
the pace of the talks has slowed due to some major disagreements. Once again,
Trump talked about his threat to pull out of the agreement unless major changes
take place. However, the president also said he’s “leaving it a little bit
flexible” until after the election. Freeland adds, “We have always felt that
adding an artificial deadline wasn’t necessary from our standpoint. I thought
it was a very constructive proposal from the president.”
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