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By Robin Levinson-KingBBC News, Toronto Canada's foreign minister has flown to the US to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), a landmark pact dating back to 1994. Her visit comes a day after the US and Mexico agreed to a new Nafta deal. Canada, the third member of Nafta, has yet to say whether it will join the revised free trade agreement. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said striking a deal by Friday was possible, but added: "It is only a possibility, because it will hinge on whether or not there is ultimately a good deal for Canada." In Washington, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland struck a cautiously positive tone. She said Canada supported wage rules agreed by the US and Mexico that would require car workers to be paid at least $16 an hour. The US and Canada reached a "high level agreement" about the matter in the spring, Ms Freeland said: "On that basis, we are optimistic about having some very productive conversations this week." Mr Trump has threatened to tax Canada's automotive sector or cut it out entirely if a deal is not reached soon. But a deal without Canada could be harder than he thinks, experts say. Lawrence Herman, a senior fellow at the CD Howe Institute in Toronto who has extensive experience in US-Canada trade relations, says Canada has been "badly treated" by this divide-and-conquer approach. "Canada has been isolated," he says. "It is outrageous that the United States and Mexico would negotiate some kind of arrangement behind closed doors." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said "he is determined to reach a fair agreement for all concerned" as long as the deal is "good for Canada and good for middle-class Canadians". If Canada does not come to an agreement by Friday, Mr Trump said he will levy additional tariffs on its auto exports. "It will either be a tariff on cars, or it will be a negotiated deal," the US president said. "And, frankly, a tariff on cars is a much easier way to go, but perhaps the other would be much better for Canada." Vehicle exports to the US are worth $56bn (C$72bn; £43bn), or 20% of Canada's total exports to the US - its largest export market. The costs for the US would also be high, as America's auto sector uses parts that are manufactured in Canada. "I think the question the Canadian negotiators are trying to calculate is whether or not this is a serious threat or a bluff," says Edward Alden, a senior fellow on trade at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. If auto tariffs do not work, Mr Trump has said he would be happy to "terminate" Nafta entirely and instead sign bilateral agreements with Mexico and Canada separately. But getting his way would not be that simple, Mr Herman says. Mr Trump would have to give Congress 90 days notice of his intention to terminate Nafta. Congress would then have an additional 90 days to review any new agreements replacing Nafta. Meanwhile, the US would be open to litigation from all sides, says Mr Herman. "I think it will be extremely difficult," he adds. "The Congress, and only the Congress, can agree to the termination of Nafta by the United States." Tensions between Canada and the US have been simmering since the G7 summit in June, when Mr Trump called Mr Trudeau "very dishonest and weak". The looming deadline was precipitated by a political changing of the guard in Mexico, and mid-term elections in the US. Negotiators want to sign a deal with Mexico before outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto leaves office at the end of November. In order to meet that deadline, the Trump administration must present Congress with a deal at least 90 days in advance - which means the deadline is the end of August. It would also be a big win for Mr Trump if he could have a deal ready to go before Americans head to the polls. "I think what Trump is hoping for is a vindication of his approach, which is by taking a very hard line and in effect holding a gun to the head of American trading partners, he can force them to make concessions," Mr Alden said. "We're going to get a test of that over the next several days."
Nafta: Clock is ticking for Canada in US trade negotiations

By Iain WatsonPolitical correspondent, BBC News But some members are unhappy with what they see as a possible power grab by some of the big unions who control 50% of votes at next week's conference. Discussions will focus on what changes are needed to the party's rules in order to implement proposals from the year-long democracy review. The conference will then vote to approve or reject them. There is a left-wing, pro-Corbyn majority on the National Executive Committee (NEC) but some issues have proved divisive even within the left. Momentum - the group set up to support Jeremy Corbyn's leadership - has been pushing for 'open' parliamentary selections. This would allow parliamentary hopefuls to compete against any sitting MP between general elections for any Labour nomination. But some unions - also under left-wing control - believe this would diminish their role in the process of choosing MPs. So I am told a compromise is being brokered. Currently for a sitting MP to be challenged, 50% of their local party branches have to agree - and that includes not just branches consisting of individual party members, but branches of 'affiliated' trade unions, too. In other words, those unions that pay for a link to the Labour Party such as Unite and the GMB. Under the compromise plan, a contest would be triggered if just 30% of union or party branches agree. So the existing system of selections would be reformed rather than swept away. Part of the union There has, however, been a further wrangle over the compromise. The democracy review was sold as a way of empowering the membership and some on the left are fearful that it will instead further empower trade union leaders. Some local trade union branches have very few members while many of the branches consisting of fully-paid up individual party members are much larger. So a relatively small number of trade unionists could trigger a re-selection contest since it would be much easier to get 30% of trade union branches to give the sitting MP the thumbs down than 30% of the (often much larger) membership branches. There had been talk of a further compromise - giving less weight to smaller union branches. On the latest information I have, it looks like this further proposal may have been dropped. One NEC member suggested privately that the "compromise" - rather than either protecting sitting MPs or giving members a much greater say - would in effect allow Unite chief Len McCluskey "to pick off whoever he wants". So even the "compromise" hasn't been agreed. Not knowingly undersold, one insider said "it could be war". Follow the leader There has also been a change to the initial proposal for selecting Jeremy Corbyn's eventual successor. What was floated at the last meeting of the NEC was a new system which would allow a candidate to get nominated with the backing of just 5% of MPs (the current threshold is 10%) so long as either 10% of local constituency parties, or 10% of unions, also nominated them. Today the NEC will discuss a new proposal - a future leader would require not only the support of 10% of MPs and local parties but would now also require the support of two trade unions that account for 5% of 'affiliated' members. Complicated as that is (and believe it or not, I have simplified the options) the upshot is that a leadership candidate wouldn't get on the ballot without the backing of some big unions. And some Momentum activists are complaining that this would skew power away from rank and file party members and are pledging to oppose it. Momentum has been pressing its members to deluge the NEC with emails calling for the leadership threshold to be reduced to 5% of MPs and for any compromise on parliamentary selections to be ditched. "Their phones are imploding under the weight of emails," one source said. The NEC is likely to be expanded to include, specifically, party members with disabilities and those from an ethnic minority background. But the proposal today is that these new places will be elected equally by unions and rank-and-file members, not just by the party membership alone. Local authority After the last NEC meeting, a Corbyn-sceptic told me he had "kicked into the long grass" a proposal that the leaders of local authority Labour groups would be elected by the wider membership and not just by councils. Well, someone has got the political lawnmower out, because it's back on the agenda now. And local government manifestos might be drawn up not by councillors but wider local government committees which include trade union nominees. Pretty vacant? Under the current system when an NEC place chosen by the members (the unions, councillors, shadow cabinet and MPs/MEPs have their own dedicated places) becomes vacant, the runner up in the annual elections is automatically promoted onto the NEC. I understand an NEC member is considering standing down and that would mean comedian Eddie Izzard (who wasn't supported by the left) would be elevated. But under proposals to be discussed today a by-election, seen as unnecessarily expensive by opponents, would be held in future - increasing the chance of a left-wing replacement A proposal to have existing NEC members choose amongst themselves who joins them has been dropped. Democracy is coming? Clearly there are plenty of issues still to be agreed, but whatever backroom deals are done, or compromises concluded, it's likely by the end of Labour conference that it will be easier to replace sitting MPs and that it's even more likely that someone on the left (not necessarily the so-called 'hard left') will replace Jeremy Corbyn when the time comes. And that the tension between a vision of a "members-led" party which Momentum has been advocating, and one where the big trade unions retain power, will continue.
Labour's democracy review - how democratic is it?

The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) dipped to 50.3 in November from October's 50.8, closer to the 50 point mark that separates growth from contraction. It was below the 50.6 level expected by economists. Rising costs and falling demand were blamed for the downturn in activity. Meanwhile, a private survey from from HSBC showed that growth in Chinese factories in November stalled as output shrank for the first time in six months. The final HSBC/Markit manufacturing PMI slipped to a six-month low of 50 in November, down from 50.4 in October. The reading was unchanged from a preliminary "flash" finding released earlier this month. Output fell to 49.6, which was the worst reading since May. "Muted growth in new work," led companies to hold back production, HSBC/Markit said. Boost needed Growth in the world's second largest economy fell to 7.3% in the third quarter, which was the slowest pace since the global financial crisis. The risk that China might miss its official growth target of 7.5% this year for the first time in 15 years is growing because economic data is weaker than expected, economists said. A struggling property market, uneven export growth and cooling domestic demand and investment are some of the major factors weighing on overall growth. Alaistair Chan, economist at Moody's Analytics, said he had expected the slowdown in manufacturing and was a "little more pessimistic" than the market for two reasons. "Firstly, there are signs the recent export boom is fading. Meanwhile, the housing market and related sectors such as steel and cement manufacturing, remains in a slump," Mr Chan said. House prices fall China's house prices fell on a monthly basis for the seventh straight month in November, a survey showed on Sunday. The average price of a new home in its 100 major cities was down 0.38% from October, the independent China Index Academy said. Earlier this month, the country's central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates to 2.75% for first time since 2012 in an attempt to revive the economy. Mr Chan said Monday's data shows further evidence that fourth quarter growth will be about the same as the third quarter with growth "below China's potential" and the government's target. "Monetary policy may need further action, possibly with a reserve ratio cut or another interest rate cut, by year end," he said.

China's manufacturing growth slows again in November

