CANADA/MEXICO/NAFTA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The United States and Mexico reached a two-way trade deal Monday [8-27-18], moving President Donald Trump one step closer to fulfilling a core campaign promise to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement. The development, which happened after U.S. and Mexican trade officials met regularly for five weeks, could clear the way for Canada to return to the table to try to reach a final updated agreement in the coming days, according to three sources close to the negotiations. But Trump also warned that efforts to revamp the 24-year-old pact could result in two different agreements and threatened Canada with tariffs on automobiles if Ottawa didn’t agree to negotiate ‘fairly’…Though the announcement represents a bright spot in the trade war Trump has been waging with other countries around the globe, U.S. negotiators backed off on some of the president’s key demands, softening a proposal to end the pact after five years unless the countries agree to keep it going. Any final deal must also be approved by Congress before it takes effect.”
-Sabrina Rodriguez, Adam Behsudi and Doug Palmer, “Trump embraces Mexico, threatens Canada with trade deal,” Politico, August 27, 2018 6:10 pm