Newman on NAFTA: Why Canada Won't Walk Away from the Negotiating Table

Ensight's Don Newman on NAFTA talks resuming in Mexico City this weekend, why the Ministers won't be there and when the next make or break period is (Hint – January).NAFTA negotiations are resuming this weekend in Mexico City.This time the negotiators from Canada, the United States, and Mexico will be on their own. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister, Chrystia Freeland, and her counterparts from the United States and Mexican cabinets won't be there. Not enough progress is expected to be made that their attendance will be required.Not only that, the cabinet ministers won't be attending the next negotiating session either. Breaking with the usual sequences of rotating the meetings between the three countries' capitals, only the negotiating teams will meet again next month in Washington, although it should be Canada's turn to host the next meeting in Ottawa.However, Ottawa will be the site of a meeting in January, where the Ministers as well as the