The daily business briefing: August 29, 2018

Canada rushes to rejoin NAFTA talks after U.S.-Mexico deal, consumer confidence jumps to 18-year high, and more 

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1. Canadian minister rushes to U.S. to resume NAFTA talks

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland returned early from a Europe trip to fly to Washington for an urgent meeting with President Trump's top trade advisers after they suggested that the U.S. was prepared to leave Canada out of a trade deal with Mexico intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. "The president, as he's indicated, is fully prepared to go ahead with or without Canada," Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, said on Fox Business. A spokesman for Freeland said ahead of her meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the Canadian government "will only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class." U.S. stock futures inched further into record territory on the apparent easing of trade tensions.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.