Freeland was effusive in her praise of Mexico’s trade concessions on autos and labor rights on Tuesday as she rejoined NAFTA talks. In the meantime, U.S. lawmakers were wary that a bilateral U.S.-Mexico trade deal may encounter obstacles on its path towards approval in Congress.
The trade deal struck with Mexico on Monday would effectively eliminate the NAFTA name and would now be called The United States-Mexico Trade agreement. The Trump administration was pushing for a revamp of the NAFTA agreement prior to December 1 when Mexico turns over its leadership to the incoming administration of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The bilateral U.S.-Mexico deal announced on Monday gives U.S. President Donald Trump the right to impose 25% tariffs on imports of Mexican-made passenger vehicles. If Trump proceeds with the tariffs, Mexican duty-free exports of cars and sport-utility vehicles to the U.S. would have a cap of 2.4 million vehicles per year.
Freeland said that Mexico’s tough concessions to the U.S. could pave the way for productive negotiations, but a succinct resolution has yet to be in place.
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