


Canada’s negotiating team is intensifying trade talks with the United States after they hit a snag last month, and a July 21 deadline to conclude some kind of agreement is looming.
The talks are following a separate track from U.S. negotiations with dozens of other nations. Those had been scheduled to conclude by Wednesday, but President Trump extended their deadline to Aug. 1.
Canadian officials at various levels are communicating with their United States counterparts almost daily, according to Kirsten Hillman, the country’s ambassador to the U.S. and its chief trade negotiator.
Ms. Hillman said in a recent interview that the July 21 deadline for Canada and the United States to reach a conclusion in their protracted talks was serious.
The deadline was first presented when Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and Mr. Trump held trade talks during last month’s summit of the Group of 7 industrialized nations’s leaders in Canada.
“Both of our leaders in their bilateral discussions said we should try to get this done as quickly as possible,” Ms. Hillman said in an interview. “We know each other well, so we should be able to do this efficiently.”