Washington (AFP)

Representatives from the United States, Mexico, and Canada met in Washington on Wednesday to try to remove the remaining hurdles for US Democrats to adopt the new Trilateral Free Trade Agreement (CETUA), but without announcing an agreement .

Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative, received the Mexican trade negotiator, Jesus Seade twice, the second in the presence of Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, who came expressly to the US capital late in the afternoon. noon for a meeting of just under an hour.

Mr. Seade and Ms. Freeland briefly and separately spoke out of the meeting, but did not give much details, although Ms. Freeland indicated that officials from all three countries would continue their discussions on Wednesday night. headquarters of Mr. Lighthizer, not far from the White House.

AEUMC is an overhaul of the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but this new, modernized agreement is pending the green light of US Democrats, who have the majority in the lower house of Congress in the United States.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat leader in the House, is currently negotiating with the Trump administration changes to the text on labor law, but also environmental issues and dispute settlement mechanism.

Requests that mainly concern Mexico, the American unions fearing unfair competition.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest trade union federation in the US, asked Democrats for more concessions before voting.

The negotiated amendments would be added to the treaty as an addendum or cover letter.

- "Good direction" -

"We've talked about the proposals and everything seems to be going in the right direction," Seade said after meeting Lighthizer in the morning.

"It is time to reach an agreement," he said, stressing that he must "carefully consider" the documents that amend the original text and "possibly discuss some changes."

Asked about the merits of Democrats' demands, Freeland merely repeated that each country had its ratification process.

"We think it would be good for all of our countries to make this agreement happen," she said.

A consensus on the new continental trade agreement was reached last year, but so far only Mexico has ratified the text.

Canada said it would ratify the agreement at the same time as the United States.

For the US administration, the ratification of this text presses while a year of presidential election is looming and Mr. Trump is seeking a second term.

The adoption of this overhaul of the largest trade agreement binding the three North American countries would be an important campaign argument for the president.

Neither Mr. Seade nor Ms. Freeland gave a timetable for further discussions.

The Deputy Prime Minister noted, however, that the exchanges were not limited to these face-to-face meetings, but that she spoke very regularly with Mr. Lighthizer over the phone and even exchanged text messages with him.

© 2019 AFP