US Grains Council warns of ‘no visible path’ in NAFTA negotiations

The US Grains Council has warned that negotiations between Canada, the United States and Mexico over the reworking of NAFTA are facing logjam, with negotiators showing no leeway on intractable, diametrically opposed positions.

“While a number of issues still do not have a visible path for resolution, talks continue,” said Floyd Gaibler, the US Grains Council’s Director of Trade and Biotechnology, adding that Mexican and Canadian negotiators had not yet countered many of the “most controversial US proposals”.

The press release, published late Thursday, follows the conclusion of the fifth round of negotiations in Mexico City on November 21, a meeting at which US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern at the “lack of headway” and and framed Mexico and Canada as unwilling to “seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement.”

One of the main stumbling blocks appears to be the US proposal to allow seasonal produce growers to seek anti-dumping or countervailing duties, a measure that the US Grains Council notes Mexico is fundamentally opposed to.

Many of the US concerns stem from Mexico’s supply of sugar to the US, which is subject to a separate Suspension Agreement, imposed in 2014 following a free trade agreement that saw a huge surge in exports from Mexico to the US.

With sugar flowing in from Mexico, corn heads in the opposite direction. Net export sales for November 1-23 totalled 2.2 million mt, with exports just over 1 million mt, according to USDA data.