The current administration seems unwilling to fully commit to any regional trade deal as RCEP and TPP continue to plow ahead in the Pacific. Sunset provisions are innately antithetical to trade agreements as they create an aura of uncertainty unconducive to strategic investment.
September 14, 2017
Canada and Mexico pushed back Thursday against a U.S. proposal to incorporate a provision in NAFTA 2.0 that would automatically terminate the trade agreement after five years unless all three countries agree before then to renew it.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative began circulating the so-called “sunset” provision among U.S. government agencies late last week — as POLITICO first reported on Thursday — in anticipation of formally proposing it at the third round of NAFTA negotiations, slated to begin next weekend in Ottawa.