Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will head to Washington on Tuesday to re-join face-to-face negotiations with the United States and Mexico on the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Freeland, who will cut short a diplomatic trip to Europe to re-enter the high-level talks, is making the sudden change in plans after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a bilateral trade ``understanding'' that could lead to an overhaul _ or perhaps the termination _ of the three-country agreement.
In making his announcement, Trump extended an invitation to Ottawa to join what he's cast as American-Mexican trade negotiations, which have stretched through the summer without Canadian officials at the table.
Trump also threatened Canada that if it can't reach a new trade deal, then he will slap it with devastating tariffs on automotive imports.
``We'll start negotiating with Canada relatively soon, they want to negotiate very badly,'' Trump said in the Oval Office, with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto joining by speaker phone.
``But one way or the other, we have a deal with Canada. It will either be a tariff on cars, or it will be a negotiated deal; and frankly a tariff on cars is a much easier way to go, but perhaps the other would be much better for Canada.''