The Canadian government has entered intensive weekend trade talks with the Trump administration in hopes of reaching an agreement on a revised North American Free Trade Agreement before a U.S.-imposed Sunday deadline.
In a sign that Canada is pulling out all the stops, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland—her country’s lead Nafta negotiator—postponed a planned Saturday noon-hour speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
Ms. Freeland is now in Ottawa, with no plans as of yet to travel to Washington, said a person familiar with the government’s planning. Key stakeholders briefed by the Canadian government over the weekend said they were prepared for the possibility of an announcement as soon as Sunday.
It wasn’t clear as of Saturday afternoon whether the two sides had made significant progress in bridging differences over a wide range of issues. “Talks are intense,” one Canadian official said, adding “we won’t comment on timelines.” U.S. officials declined to comment.
The effort comes as President Trump and his aides have expressed frustration with what they have called Canadian intransigence in the talks a month after Mr. Trump reached a deal with the pact’s third partner, Mexico. Mr. Trump has said he was ready to move forward with efforts to replace the quarter-century-old trilateral pact with a U.S.-Mexico-only deal.
Mr. Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, told members of Congress on Thursday that the U.S.-Canada disagreements appeared too large to strike an agreement with Ottawa by the Sept. 30 deadline set by the U.S.
A second Canadian official cautioned that the negotiations may not result in a deal before the end of Sunday, when the Trump administration is due to make public text on the previously negotiated deal between the U.S. and Mexico.
The official said negotiations could continue into October, which is a possibility Mr. Lighthizer floated in an appearance this past week in New York. Ms. Freeland and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have repeatedly said they are willing to take as long as necessary to reach a deal that benefits all countries.
Canada’s decision to shift the U.N. speaking spot caps the latest in a string of events in the past 24 hours indicating a last-minute push for all three Nafta parties to come to an agreement on a revised pact.
On Friday evening, Mexico was set to release the text of a pact it reached with the U.S. late last month. But the unveiling was postponed, with Mexico’s Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo saying there was a “serious effort” to reach a trilateral pact.
The plan to delay the text had the endorsement of Mexico’s president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, although he added he was unwilling to renegotiate what the U.S. and Mexico had agreed to.
Write to Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com, Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com and Jacob M. Schlesinger at jacob.schlesinger@wsj.com
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