INTERNATIONAL

Mexico Sees NAFTA Talks at Impasse: An internal Mexican government document shows that talks on the North American Free Trade Agreement are at a “breaking point.” The document--an advisory to Mexican negotiators in Washington from the Trade Ministry--blames the apparent impasse on pressure by the United States and Canada for the right to sue Mexico in its own courts for noncompliance with proposed environmental safeguards. “The pretension of the United States and Canada to include the possibility of suing Mexico in its own courts attacks the concept of sovereignty and is as such inadmissible,” says the document, which was obtained by Reuters. In a press statement, the Trade Ministry confirmed that it “will not accept any scheme that any of the other two countries or a tri-national entity can take the Mexican government to Mexican courts to resolve controversies on environmental or labor issues.”