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Trump's Top Nafta Negotiator Dines With Mexico's in Buenos Aires

  • Guajardo says he met with Lighthizer on WTO summit’s sidelines
  • Mexico minister says they must find ways to bridge differences
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (right) and Mexico Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal wait for the start of a press conference in Washington on Oct. 17, 2017. 

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (right) and Mexico Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal wait for the start of a press conference in Washington on Oct. 17, 2017. 

Photographer: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

As negotiators work this week in Washington to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, the most important meeting may be one that took place thousands of miles away.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer dined with Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo in Argentina, Guajardo told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of World Trade Organization meetings in Buenos Aires. The tete-a-tete didn’t include Canadian participation, he said. Canada is being represented in the WTO talks by Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne rather than Foreign Relations Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is leading the nation’s Nafta negotiating team.