'Several sticking points remain in US, Canada trade talks'

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has said "several sticking points" remain in the trade talks between the US and Canada to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"There's broad agreement on virtually all of that. There are several sticking points," Navarro said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, citing of differences over the dairy market access and the so-called dispute resolution system, contained in Chapter 19 of the original NAFTA agreement, Xinhua reported.

"The deadline is midnight tonight to get the text in to Congress in order to make sure this goes forward," said Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.

"It's either going to be the text goes in with Mexico and the US, or the text goes in with all three countries," he said.

The White House has pressured Canada to accept the preliminary agreement it struck with Mexico last month to update the trilateral trade deal. But Canada insisted that it would only sign a new agreement that is good for the country.

US President Donald Trump's aides told US stakeholders late Saturday that there was a possibility of announcing a Canada deal before the weekend was over, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

People briefed on the talks said they were told there did not seem to be any major insurmountable issues, but that it remained unclear whether a full agreement could be finished so quickly, according to the Journal.

While US officials have indicated that they are prepared to sign a NAFTA deal without Canada, the US business community and many lawmakers have insisted that the NAFTA deal should remain a trilateral pact.

Talks on re-negotiating the NAFTA began in August 2017 as Trump threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade deal, which he claimed harmed US industries and jobs.

--IANS

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