TRENTON: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday he thought aNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal was well within reach, butit was scuttled by US insistence on the inclusion of a five-year sunsetclause.

As a result, Trudeau declined to go to the White House this week for aface-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump because renegotiatingNAFTA every five years was “totally unacceptable”.

Trudeau disclosed the details of what happened during his press conferenceThursday to address newly-resurrected US steel and aluminum tariffs.Trudeau said he talked to Trump by telephone last Friday and offered tomeet him in Washington because the new deal was so close that it neededonly a “final deal-making moment”. He said Trump seemed agreeable.

“I stated that I thought we were quite close to reaching an agreement, andperhaps the time had come for me to sit down with the president inWashington in order to finalize the NAFTA agreement,” Trudeau said. ButTuesday, Vice President Mike Pence called and said unless the Canadianprime minister agreed to the sunset clause, there would be no use inmeeting. Trudeau then declined to meet Trump.

“I had to highlight there was no possibility of any Canadian prime ministersigning a NAFTA deal that included a five-year sunset clause, and obviouslythe visit didn’t happen,” Trudeau said. Both Canada and Mexico have balkedat the clause, saying that renegotiating NAFTA every five years would leadto uncertainty for businesses and damper long-term investments. AA