Round six of NAFTA renegotiation talks continue today as Canada and Mexico claim cautious optimism that a round seven will take place. This round of talks is scheduled to continue through Monday and end with a much anticipated a joint press conference between Ildefonso Guajardo (Mex), Chrystia Freeland (Can) and U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer. There were seven rounds initially scheduled.

Canada and Mexico are trying to close less important, and less controversial, trade chapters in an effort to give the illusion of progress and frame a political narrative that lends itself toward continuing to talk; ie. round seven.

However, if there’s no significant progress on the larger issues it’s doubtful Lighthizer will find value in endless words that amount to nothing.

Canada and Mexico have been lobbying U.S. politicians hard to retain their parasitic trade positions. Additionally, a significant number of Washington DC politicians are willing to take massive bribes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists and support the export of American economic jobs and wealth. This is another key UniParty indulgence issue.

Big Corporate Agriculture (Big AG), the consortium of massive multinational agriculture companies who hold stakes in the entire continent, are pushing hard to keep their “controlled market” dominance in place, and is attempting to stoke fears using false claims about farms and negative trade impacts to farmers. Pure nonsense.

The three major sticking points remain (there are more, but these are the best known):

1) Rules of Origin; 2) Conflict Resolution; and 3) Sunset Provisions for renegotiation.

Rules of Origin – Team U.S.A. wants car North American auto manufacturers to use at least 60% parts from within North America.

– Team U.S.A. wants car North American auto manufacturers to use at least 60% parts from within North America. Team CanaMex wants to use fully assembled auto parts from China and Asia to assemble cars in Mexico and Canada and sell them as American made automobiles.

Conflict Resolution . Team U.S.A. wants an independent panel to deal with trade disputes, comprised of officials in relationship to the size of each economy.

. Team U.S.A. wants an independent panel to deal with trade disputes, comprised of officials in relationship to the size of each economy. Team CanaMex (the parasites) want to be able to override any U.S. objections to their manufacturing outcomes. They demand equality in voting. The U.S. is the host.

Sunset : Team U.S.A. wants the NAFTA agreement revisited, reviewed and renegotiated if needed, every five years. Some manufacturing sectors entirely change. [Example e-Commerce didn’t even exist when NAFTA was created, 25 years ago.]

: Team U.S.A. wants the NAFTA agreement revisited, reviewed and renegotiated if needed, every five years. Some manufacturing sectors entirely change. [Example e-Commerce didn’t even exist when NAFTA was created, 25 years ago.] Team CanaMex says no way. Whatever final trade deal is decided, is put upon the U.S. to deal with forever regardless of any changes in any sector.

It’s all smoke and mirrors at this point. Hopefully, Lighthizer will show up on Monday and simply say ‘enough, we’re done’.

End NAFTA and do bi-lateral trade deals where the size and scale of the U.S. market -our leverage- determines a more favorable outcome for the U.S. against both Canada and Mexico. Enough with these silly games.

(Via Reuters) […] During the sixth round, Canada raised what it called creative ways of meeting U.S. demands for higher North American content in autos, a sunset clause that would allow one party to quit the treaty after five years, and major changes to existing conflict resolution mechanisms. “I think we have demonstrated we have engaged on most of the big issues,” Verheul said in his remarks to Reuters. “We’ve made progress on some of the smaller ones, so I think (it was) not a bad week.” The Mexican official said that Canada’s proposals on rules of origin for autos, the sunset clause and conflict resolution mechanism were “positive, in as much as they are an attempt to move things forward.” Speaking separately, a second Canadian government source said Ottawa was cautiously optimistic about the round, given that the U.S. side had not summarily rejected the proposals for compromise. (read more)