U.S. and Canada Move Closer to Nafta Deal as Deadline Looms

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Industry lobbyists who have been briefed on the negotiations said that one of the biggest obstacles has been Canada’s desire to have Mr. Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs lifted as part of a new Nafta agreement and to receive assurances that Canada will not face new tariffs on automobiles, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened. In exchange, Canada has expressed openness to offering concessions on access to its dairy market.

American officials declined to comment on the talks. A Mexican official said that all parties were working “intensely” through the day. A Canadian official described the negotiations as “constructive.”

While Canada had played down the end-of-the-month deadline, the talks were restarted in earnest this weekend as the United States and Mexico signaled they would release text of their bilateral trade agreement as early as Friday. Mexico wants a deal signed before Dec. 1, when the new Mexican administration takes over and the Trump administration wants the current, Republican-controlled Congress to vote on the deal quickly, given a potential change in control after the November midterm elections.

With the timeline shrinking, Canada’s leadership redoubled its efforts to find common ground. Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian foreign minister and its top trade negotiator, canceled plans to give a speech at the United Nations in New York on Saturday and hunkered down in Ottawa to help steer the negotiations. On Friday night, Ms. Freeland and her team held a conference call with Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, and other American negotiators, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Discussions between the United States and Canada had stalled amid souring relations between Mr. Trump and Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. Mr. Trump lashed out at Canada last week during the United Nations General Assembly meeting for mistreating the United States on trade and said he had rejected a meeting with Mr. Trudeau because of Canada’s high tariffs. That followed a testy meeting in June, when Mr. Trump accused Mr. Trudeau of being “dishonest,” and a threat last week to tax Canada’s auto exports into the United States if it did not agree to America’s demands.

With relations worsening and the fate of the pact up in the air, Mr. Trudeau reached out to Mr. López Obrador, who said he would not look to reopen negotiations with the United States once he takes office on Dec. 1.

Luis Videgaray Caso, Mexico’s foreign minister, was also working with the United States and Canada on Friday to bring the two countries closer together, according to a Mexican official.

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