MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Mexico might conclude a bilateral trade agreement with Canada if Ottawa’s talks with Washington on the new deal to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) see no progress, Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.
“If there is no understanding between the United States and Canada, we cannot break off our relations with them. If we have advanced on one of the deals [with the United States], we must reach the same [progress] with Canada,” Lopez Obrador said on Friday.
US President Donald Trump has been seeking to renegotiate the United States’ trade agreements with other countries, including the NAFTA deal, since his election campaign in 2016.
For over a year, Canada, Mexico and the United States have been engaged in talks to modernize their trade deal. In August, Trump said that the United States and Mexico had reached a preliminary agreement in their NAFTA talks. However, the US president noted that if Canada was not willing to make a fair deal, the country would not be allowed to join this preliminary deal.
The Canadian Foreign Ministry, in its turn, welcomed the agreement reached by Washington and Mexico City, adding it was motivated by the negotiations progress.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
