US will attend NAFTA talks even if government shuts down

The United States plans to participate in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations even if the federal government shuts down.

The fate of next week’s NAFTA talks, which are scheduled to continue in Montreal with the United States, Canada and Mexico, seemed to hinge on whether Congress could reach a spending deal before Friday’s deadline. 

{mosads}Even without an agreement in the offing, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office said Friday that the United States will participate in the NAFTA negotiations as scheduled. 

No details have been released as to how USTR would cover the cost of sending negotiators to Canada for the week although contingency plan crafted by the Office of Management and Budget in 2015 would allow for 75 staffers to work at the trade office through a shutdown.  

During the partial shutdown in October 2013, the United States postponed negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union.

While progress has been made on updating the 25-year-old agreement, trade talks between the three longtime trading partners have been fraught with tension. 

The United States has slapped heavy penalties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber over what it calls unfair trade practices such as subsidies. 

Canada has filed a broad case with the World Trade Organization over those and other tariffs the U.S. has levied against Ottawa and other countries. 

On NAFTA, technical talks are slated to start Sunday with the bulk of negotiations scheduled for next week. Issues will run the gamut from digital trade and rules of origin to trade remedies and labor issues. 

This is the sixth round of talks, which started in August, between the three countries to update the 25-year-old agreement.

On Jan. 29, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s secretary of economy, will meet in Montreal, as part of the NAFTA renegotiations, the Canadian government announced Thursday. 

Congressional negotiators are down to their final hours to reach a spending deal before midnight. 

The House passed a continuing resolution Thursday night but the bill is stalled in the Senate.

Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) met with President Trump at the White House on Friday afternoon without a resolution.