WASHINGTON—U. S. President Donald Trump’s administration is making such unrealistic North American Free Trade Agreement demands that the negotiation is at risk of implosion, trade experts and the top American business lobby group are warning.

As Canadian and Mexican negotiators join Trump’s team near Washington on Wednesday to begin a critical fourth round of talks, their work is surrounded by growing transcontinental pessimism about the chances of reaching a revised deal.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to emphasize the importance of the bilateral economic relationship, and the benefits of the trilateral agreement, when he meets with Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trump, though, has greeted him with another threat, telling Forbes magazine that “NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good.”

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Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland declined Tuesday to speculate on the future of NAFTA or discuss Trump directly. But asked at a Washington event about a Republican senator’s claim that Trump’s recklessness threatens “World War III,” Freeland said: “I think that this is probably the most uncertain moment in international relations since the end of the Second World War.”

Canadian officials have brushed off Trump’s rhetoric as negotiating bluster. Experts, however, say his professed disdain for the deal is being reflected in his negotiators’ actions to far — delaying the introduction of important proposals, then putting forth proposals obviously untenable to Canada and Mexico.

The most important American complaint to date came Tuesday from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Republican-leaning business lobby. Speaking in Mexico City, president Thomas Donohue said he had no choice but to “ring the alarm bells” about “unnecessary and unacceptable” proposals from the U.S. side.

“Heading into the negotiations, you could say that our strategy has been to speak softly and give the administration every opportunity, all the support, and just enough pressure to do the right thing. We’ve done that. We’ve been patient, cool-headed, and constructive. But let me be forceful and direct. There are several poison pill proposals still on the table that could doom the entire deal,” Donohue said.

The proposals Donohue mentioned are among the ones that have caused consternation in the Canadian and Mexican governments. They include:

A “sunset clause” that would automatically terminate the deal in five years absent a new endorsement from all sides.

A rule requiring a hefty portion of automobiles to be made in the U.S. itself, not just in the NAFTA zone.

A “Buy American” rule saying Canadian and Mexican firms could not receive government contracts worth more than the government contracts secured by American firms in the other two countries, which are much smaller.

Some of the U.S. proposals have not yet been put on the negotiating table. Trump’s team is expected to use this round — which runs Wednesday to next Tuesday (prolonged from the originally scheduled five days) at a hotel in the Washington suburb of Arlington, Va. — to offer its first official ideas on contentious topics like the “rules of origin” for cars.

Lawrence Herman, a trade lawyer in Canada, said “most of the people I talk to are expecting that we may be very close to the precipice this week.” The problem, he said, is the posture expected to be taken by Trump’s team in service of his campaign promise to radically transform the agreement.

Trump ran on an “America First” platform of economic nationalism and protectionism. As recently as August, he described NAFTA as the “worst trade deal ever made.” Herman said Trump’s public comments make it politically impossible for him to proclaim victory without being able to hold up major changes.

“He basically wants Canada and Mexico to cave in on all his outrageous demands. And that is not going to happen,” Herman said.

Bob Fisher, a U.S. negotiator for the original NAFTA talks and now managing director of Washington trade consulting firm Hills and Co., put the chances of success at “50-50.”

A key question, Fisher said, is whether rumoured hard-line U.S. proposals are actual “red lines” or mere opening positions that are subject to negotiation.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday. Trudeau says he speaks with the U.S. president ?every few weeks? and the Washington meeting is a continuation of ongoing talks on many issues. (The Canadian Press)

“I think it’s very clear that there are some people in the administration who would like to terminate the deal. I think there are some people who might view beginning the process of termination as one of several negotiating tactics they might use,” he said.

Trudeau is scheduled to meet Wednesday not only with Trump but with the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. The committee would play a significant role in the event that a new agreement was indeed reached and had to be ratified by Congress — or, alternately, in the event that Trump actually announced his intention to withdraw from the current agreement.

If Trump settles on withdrawal, there would be a mandatory six-month waiting period. Beyond that, there is no consensus on what would happen. Some experts believe Trump could act unilaterally, but others believe Congress would have to pass a law to rescind an agreement Congress approved in 1993.

As he hinted to Forbes magazine in the interview published Tuesday, Trump could try to initiate the withdrawal process to increase pressure on the other two countries. Mexico, however, has said it will leave the negotiating table rather than talk under such conditions.

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