Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo met with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a bilateral NAFTA meeting yesterday. Guajardo said after the meeting that there is “very good advancement” in at least 20 items. But they have yet to discuss the stickier issues like the “sunset clause”. The meeting will continue on in Washington today.
It’s believed that the differences between the US and Mexico have somewhat narrowed after leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s victory in the presidential election on July 1. A large part of the convergence was in both sides’ push to raise wages for auto workers. There’s a change that both US and Mexico could agree on most of the items before letting Canada join in again to make it trilateral.