NAFTA negotiations grind on, little sign of quick breakthrough

U.S. negotiators are holding firm in their demands for a wide-ranging overhaul of NAFTA, sources close to the talks said on Thursday, raising questions about whether any real movement is happening at the latest round of negotiations on the treaty.

Officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States are in Montreal for the sixth and penultimate set of talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement. Major differences remain to be settled ahead of the end-March deadline.

“We have brought flexibility, we have brought ideas, but the problem is that the United States has not moved an inch. They say, ‘It is my proposal or nothing’,” said one of the sources, who spoke to reporters on condition they not be named.

This was excerpted from the 25 January 2018 edition of Reuters Canada.