Mexico

The foreign minister remained in Canada as of Saturday morning.

The president-elect said he told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “we are going to continue to insist on a trilateral deal.”

Following a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, several Democrats on the House Ways & Means Committee said the earliest Congress was likely to vote on a NAFTA-like deal is February or March.

Karen Antebi, an economic counselor in the Mexican Embassy’s Trade and NAFTA Office, said on Wednesday that NAFTA’s safeguard language has been “kept and expanded” upon in the new U.S.-Mexico trade deal despite a U.S. push to eliminate such provisions.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday said the U.S. and Canada must “come to grips” with a number of contentious issues -- such as dairy and Chapter 19 -- as the deadline for the U.S. to finalize a deal with Mexico approaches.

“We understand the effort to improve U.S. trade policy, but in doing so, we must not choose policy vehicles that leave large numbers of our citizens worse off.”

Rules of origin governing whether some chemicals will be eligible for benefits under a new U.S.-Mexico trade pact are more flexible than provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement, sources said, adding the new rules are akin to those included in the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

Tom Donohue, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, told reporters on Wednesday that a trade deal with Mexico alone -- leaving Canada out -- should not be considered a deal at all.