Want clues on the state of NAFTA? Watch America’s trade ‘curmudgeon’ Monday
MONTREAL — For a better sense of where the NAFTA negotiations stand, and whether the continental trade pact risks being imminently whacked by a cancellation notice from U.S. President Donald Trump, watch his trade czar Monday.
Robert Lighthizer, Canada’s Chrystia Freeland and Ildefonso Guajardo of Mexico are in Montreal for meetings and a rare group event following a week-long negotiating round that insiders hailed as producing slivers of optimism.
Lighthizer’s reaction is now key.
His negotiators have handed him the details of this past round, and sought guidance. His boss, the president of the United States, keeps lobbing the occasional threat to cancel NAFTA. And big political decisions lie ahead, with just eight weeks left in the current schedule of talks.