NAFTA negotiators notch a chapter, set up fourth round of talks for October

Top trade negotiators from the U.S., Canada and Mexico said Wednesday they have one chapter of an updated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the books. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Guajardo said they have completed the chapter on small- and medium-sized enterprises in remarks at the end of the third round of NAFTA talks in Ottawa. Lighthizer called it “very, very important” that the chapter is done. “These businesses are the engines that drive each of our economies,” Lighthizer said in his closing remarks. Lighthizer said that significant progress is being made in other areas, including competition policy, digital trade, state-owned enterprises, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs and telecommunications...more