CANADA/CONGRESS/NAFTA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “TRUMP SLAMS CANADA AFTER TALKS FALTER: President Donald Trump blasted Canada on Saturday [9-1-18], one day after his administration failed to conclude talks with the United States’ northern neighbor on the terms of a NAFTA agreement. He also warned Congress not to ‘interfere’ with the negotiations and repeated his threat to terminate the current NAFTA pact unless a new deal is made…Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will be back in Washington on Wednesday [9-5-18] to renew efforts to resolve politically difficult issues, like dairy market access and the fate of NAFTA’s Chapter 19, which created a forum for NAFTA countries to attempt to overturn anti-dumping and countervailing duties that they believe were unfairly applied. Canada wants to preserve the provision, which it has used aggressively in the past against U.S. decisions on softwood lumber, while the Trump administration wants to eliminate it. After negotiations ended abruptly on Friday [8-31-18], House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady reserved judgment on the evolving NAFTA 2.0 framework, but also appeared to put the onus on Canada to close the deal with Trump. ‘I look forward to carefully analyzing the details of what has been agreed to and consulting with my colleagues and constituents to determine whether the new proposal meets the high-standard trade priorities set out by Congress under Trade Promotion Authority,’ the Texas Republican said.”
–Doug Palmer and Adam Behsudi, “Trump slams Canada after talks falter,” Politico, September 4, 2018 10:00 am