Canadian and American negotiators have pulled an 11th hour deal on the new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
It was starting to look grim for the future of NAFTA. The clock was ticking down to the midnight deadline with no deal yet in place. While there were reasons to be doubtful, it seems that negotiators pulled an 11th hour miracle to make the agreement limp across the finish line.
Moments ago, the Globe and Mail reported that an agreement has been reached:
Canadian and U.S. negotiators reached the outline of a NAFTA deal after intensive weekend talks but were awaiting approval from President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late Sunday.
Four sources briefed on the closed-door discussions said the two sides were hoping to finalize the deal overnight with an announcement Monday.
Mr. Trudeau convened a 10 p.m. ET Sunday cabinet meeting at his office and will meet the cabinet again at 11 a.m. ET on Monday to discuss the deal, said two government sources. The Mexican Economy Ministry, meanwhile, said it would present text of its preliminary NAFTA deal with the U.S. to the Mexican Senate.
So, the question now is, where do things go from here? US president Donald Trump has to approve of the deal. In addition, the text is presumably going to be released soon so we will know what the deal looks like.
We will continue to monitor the situation to see where things go from here.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
