OTTAWA – A day before Canada, the United States and Mexico are due to sign a new trade pact, the three sides are still finalizing some of the details, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.
Freeland, speaking to reporters in Buenos Aires before a Group of 20 summit, said Canada was on track to sign the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Friday. Canadian officials would be working with their U.S. and Mexican counterparts later on Thursday, she added.
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“As is always the case … with these agreements, there are always details to be finalized and we are very hard at work doing that,” Freeland said in televised remarks.
The three countries agreed a deal in principle to govern the trillion dollars of mutual trade after a year and a half of contentious talks concluded with a late night bargain just an hour before a deadline on Sept. 30.
Since then, Canadian officials complained the United States is trying to change elements of the pact that the sides had agreed on, sources have said.
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Dairy remains a sticking point between the two, four sources familiar with the matter said this week.
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— Reporting by David Ljunggren Editing by Susan Thomas.
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