美国总统川普星期一和加拿大总理特鲁多通电话时呼吁尽快结束修改北美自由贸易协议的谈判。
白宫说，川普总统强调了尽快达成协议的重要性。特鲁多总理的办公室说，两位领导人讨论了尽快结束谈判的可能性。
新一轮贸易谈判受到尽快取得成果的更大压力。美国众议院议长瑞安本星期说，如果要想让美国国会今年批准，他必须在5月17号之前收到已达成新协议的通知。
加拿大、美国和墨西哥正在进行川普行政当局促成的谈判，修订实施了24年的自由贸易协议。川普总统长期以来一直批评这项贸易协议，并指责它造成美国损失数百万份工作，伤害了美国经济。
川普总统多次威胁说，如果不能达成令人满意的新协议，就将退出现行协议。
美国商务部长罗斯星期一说，三国一直在讨论相互有争议的问题，但是看来没有任何问题得到解决。并未直接参与谈判的罗斯部长星期一在华盛顿对记者说，仍在对重大的问题进行讨论。
上星期的北美自由贸易协议谈判在华盛顿结束，在如何重新谈判达成协议的问题上没有取得任何进展。这次谈判第一次有美加墨三国最高贸易官员参加，他们分别是美国贸易代表莱特希泽、加拿大外交部长长克里斯蒂娅·弗里兰和墨西哥经济部长伊尔德方索·瓜哈尔多。
U.S. President Donald Trump urged for a quick conclusion to a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement during a phone call Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The White House said Trump “underscored the importance” of quickly reaching a deal, while Trudeau’s office said the two spoke of the “possibility of bringing the negotiations to a prompt conclusion.”
The talks have come under increased pressure to quickly produce a deal after U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said this week he would need to be notified of a new agreement by May 17 to give the current Congress a chance to pass it this year.
Canada, the United States and Mexico are renegotiating their 24-year-old free trade pact in a process triggered by the Trump administration. Trump has been highly critical of the 1994 deal, blaming it for the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs that hurt the U.S. economy.
He has repeatedly threatened to leave the pact if a satisfactory updated agreement is not reached.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday that none of the contentious issues the three countries have been discussing appear to have been resolved. Ross, who is not directly involved in the NAFTA talks, told reporters in Washington Monday that the big issues are still a “work in progress.”
Last week, the latest round of NAFTA talks ended in Washington without any major breakthroughs on how to renegotiate the deal. Those talks were the first to involve all three of the top officials in the negotiations — U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo.